This narrative is not at all aimed at being a review exercise of specific restaurants, but more of a general overview of our dining experiences and reflections, as well as a collection of thoughts on related subjects. I have purposely omitted the names of the restaurants referred to for a number of reasons, including the relative irrelevance of doing so, as these are not based in Malta. This is therefore beyond the scope of this account. However I would be more than pleased to provide the names of any of these establishments to anyone upon request.

Due to the overall length of this account, I have chopped it up into smaller, bite-sized morsels which should be easier to digest for the reader. I will therefore be posting here an account of a different part of our journey every couple of days…

Introduction

We often wonder why we so easily get caught up in stereotypes when of course most things in life are so much more complex. Food and cuisine are no different, with so many preconceived perceptions of entire countries simply falling into either the ‘good eating’ or the ‘bad eating’ categories.

But frankly our mini European road trip during the last two weeks of January went a long way in proving exactly why such stereotypes exist. Our trip took us through Belgium, Luxembourg, the Moselle and Upper Rhine regions of Germany, as well as the Alsace region in Eastern France and finally to Paris and the Oise region just North of Paris.

Although this might at first sound quite eclectic, it is in reality more of a regional trip by European standards, rather than one of great scale and distance. However in spite of this, the differences between each of these neighbouring countries and regions in culinary and gastronomic terms was so evident, that stereotypes start to emerge as an obvious conclusion.

I hope you will find the following various posts interesting, useful and above all entertaining.