Crystal Palace (aka Is-Serkin tar-Rabat)

Crystal Palace
Rabat (just outside Mdina)


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A traditional brutal-rural Maltese caff. Milky tea served from a kettle that predates the second world war, fresh pastizzi, dog-eared copies of Il-Passa and lots of hunters discussing birds and how to blast the shit out of them.

Most Maltese are vehemently against hunting. This lot are vehemently against people who are vehemently against hunting - so discussing the relative fairness of the EU Hunting Directive is ill-advised (to put it mildly) .

This place opens at 4 AM which would explain why it's so popular with hirsute hunters and night owls (or 'revellers' if you must). You'd expect the two wouldn't get along - and well, they don't really have to... they just ignore eachother. The twain shall never meet and all that.

Anyway - it's something of a tradition for people who spent their night at Gianpula or Tattingers to go to this place to buy their early morning pastizzi.

Interestingly, the hunters seem to be really, really into desert camo fatigues. An unusual sartorial choice considering they're going to be sitting in a stone hut for hours waiting for the right moment to shoot down the odd Kinder Surprise-sized bird rather than hunting down Taliban insurgents in northern Djalalabad. But then again, what do I know about hunting?


LINKS

"Crystal Palace, Rabat, Malta" - drerk.de (text in DE, but lots of pics)

Prego

Prego
58 South Street (Triq Nofs in-Nhar)
Valletta
(opp. Pizza Hut)



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Prego has been around for donkey's years... and nothing has changed since the last refurbishment in the mid-60s. Nothing. The staff hasn't changed, the food hasn't changed, the bathrooms haven't changed (there's enough space to play ten pin bowling with Shrek and two dozen of his close friedns and still have enough space left to play 5-a-side football).

The vertiginous descent to Prego's toilets (Photo: Il-Franciza)

Best of all, the 1960s decor hasn't changed one iota.

The coffee is excellent, the food passable and the waiters pensive (they said all that had to be said a few decades ago) . The comfy sofas and the old-school ambiance is, above all, what makes this place a winner.

"With a family tree that has deep Sicilian roots, it is clear why the Bezzina family takes coffee seriously. In 1946, Salvatore Bezzina opened Prego cafeteria in South Street, Valletta. At the time, he also ran the Ferry Café in Sliema, which closed down in 1958.

Today, Prego is still a family business.

Giorgio and Sunny, Salvatore's sons, run Prego, together with Carmelo Spiteri, their cousin, and Joe Borg, who has been working there since time immemorial.

Giorgio started working at Prego in 1974, when he was 16.

'It was always my dream to work in a cafeteria. I love the movement, the people, the conversations and the character our cafeteria has. In fact, we do our best to maintain its 1960s style. The last refurbishment was in 1965, and it has stayed like that. In much the same way, I have kept secret my recipe of how to make a good espresso. I would not tell it to anyone.' "

LINK/SOURCE
"To bean or not to bean" - L-Arka