Technical Details:
Issue Date: 09 May 2005
Designer: Joseph P. Smith
Process: Offset
Colours: 4 colours
Size: 31.0 x 44.0mm
Values: 16c, 51c
This year’s Europa stamp issue, a two-stamp set which will go on sale on today from all Maltapost branch post offices, depicts gastronomy, the theme chosen by PostEurop for 2005. The two stamps, with face values of 16c and 51c, are the result of some brilliant photography by photographer Joseph P. Smith, and are offset printed by Printex Ltd.
The stamps, in vertical format, are 31.0mm base x 44.0mm in size, with a perforation of 14.0 x 13.9 (comb), and are available in sheets of 10.
Gastronomy, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the art or science of good eating. Mediterranean cuisine, with its enormous selection and availability of the very best that the land can offer, ranks among the leaders when the subject of good, wholesome food is raised.
Prime examples of our cuisine are graphically displayed on these stamps. The 16c stamp shows stuffed sweet peppers, courgettes and aubergines, and the 51c stamp shows another firm favourite – that most characteristically Maltese dish, rabbit fried in wine and garlic. Both dishes are very traditionally Maltese, and were lovingly prepared for Joe Smith’s photography by Noel Debono of the Medina Restaurant.
In the Maltese Islands, as in other parts of the Mediterranean, vegetables are never regarded as a mere accompaniment to the main course, but as dishes in their own right. Mediterranean and middle eastern people go in for stuffing vegetables, baking them and using them in soups. We also fry them, stew them and put them into pies. Vegetables make a main course at supper time, served as a warm salad with an oil and lemon juice or vinegar dressing. There are several ways of cooking vegetables, according to whether they are young and tender or large and tending to be coarse.
Perhaps the most characteristically Maltese meat is the rabbit. The fenkata, or rabbit feast, has now become the national dish and is thus in danger of becoming cheapened as it is promoted on tourist menus. A fenkata today is best described as a kind of rabbit outing or celebration where a family or group of friends get together for a meal of spaghetti and rabbit. The eve of the feast of Mnarja on 29 June is one of the occasions for a rabbit feast of gigantic proportions, with hundreds of Maltese and visitors making their way to Buskett Gardens to partake of this traditional dish to the accompaniment of folk songs.
The Europa 2005 issue will be available from today as a first day cover, in mint or cancelled format, and as a souvenir folder or presentation pack.
Issue Date: 09 May 2005
Designer: Joseph P. Smith
Process: Offset
Colours: 4 colours
Size: 31.0 x 44.0mm
Values: 16c, 51c
This year’s Europa stamp issue, a two-stamp set which will go on sale on today from all Maltapost branch post offices, depicts gastronomy, the theme chosen by PostEurop for 2005. The two stamps, with face values of 16c and 51c, are the result of some brilliant photography by photographer Joseph P. Smith, and are offset printed by Printex Ltd.
The stamps, in vertical format, are 31.0mm base x 44.0mm in size, with a perforation of 14.0 x 13.9 (comb), and are available in sheets of 10.
Gastronomy, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the art or science of good eating. Mediterranean cuisine, with its enormous selection and availability of the very best that the land can offer, ranks among the leaders when the subject of good, wholesome food is raised.
Prime examples of our cuisine are graphically displayed on these stamps. The 16c stamp shows stuffed sweet peppers, courgettes and aubergines, and the 51c stamp shows another firm favourite – that most characteristically Maltese dish, rabbit fried in wine and garlic. Both dishes are very traditionally Maltese, and were lovingly prepared for Joe Smith’s photography by Noel Debono of the Medina Restaurant.
In the Maltese Islands, as in other parts of the Mediterranean, vegetables are never regarded as a mere accompaniment to the main course, but as dishes in their own right. Mediterranean and middle eastern people go in for stuffing vegetables, baking them and using them in soups. We also fry them, stew them and put them into pies. Vegetables make a main course at supper time, served as a warm salad with an oil and lemon juice or vinegar dressing. There are several ways of cooking vegetables, according to whether they are young and tender or large and tending to be coarse.
Perhaps the most characteristically Maltese meat is the rabbit. The fenkata, or rabbit feast, has now become the national dish and is thus in danger of becoming cheapened as it is promoted on tourist menus. A fenkata today is best described as a kind of rabbit outing or celebration where a family or group of friends get together for a meal of spaghetti and rabbit. The eve of the feast of Mnarja on 29 June is one of the occasions for a rabbit feast of gigantic proportions, with hundreds of Maltese and visitors making their way to Buskett Gardens to partake of this traditional dish to the accompaniment of folk songs.
The Europa 2005 issue will be available from today as a first day cover, in mint or cancelled format, and as a souvenir folder or presentation pack.
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