Last week I had a most pleasant lunch with Alaine and Peter Apap Bologna. I have been enjoying lunches with them for many years often wherever they happened to be residing, sometimes at a restaurant.

Before moving to Sliema they lived in Lija, a home full of antiques, silver, paintings and an enviable collection of books. Those were the Melitensia Art Gallery days when receptions in such a pleasant ambience were regular. Before that it was in their old house in Lija, with its extensive garden which somehow reminded me of Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini, a favourite book and film.

Both Alaine and Peter are foodies and excellent cooks. This time it was Alaine who prepared a couscous like I had never eaten before either in my visits to Egypt or Tunisia. Couscous is the national dish of the Maghreb, the North African countries of Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria but years ago I ate it in Egypt too. The Apap Bolognas follow Claudia Roden, their favourite writer about Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food.  I had never heard of her, but discovered that as a young émigré from Egypt she was seeking to recreate something tangible and edible for her community of exiled Middle-Eastern Jews in the Europe of the 1950s by collecting all of their memories, i.e. recipes.

 

The buzz word in my daughters' kitchens at the moment is Yotam Ottolenghi who I must say produces the most original and delicious recipes. Peter and Alaine follow him too. I stick to Helen Caruana Galizia and Pippa Mattei but also make the occasional curry out of nostalgia for my very happy years in Mauritius.  I have never been adventurous when it comes to cooking although when it comes to eating it is a different matter.

A propos of food I have to slip in that one of my granddaughters asked me for a Nutella pastizz the other day as we were walking towards a café with a pastizzeria next door. I was very surprised and asked her what gave her the idea that such a thing existed. She assured me that yes, they exist and were delicious. So in she went into the  pastizzeria and to my surprise she came back with a Nutella pastizz. As a compulsive chocolate muncher I have to say that this is the ultimate in decadence. But who knows, maybe they will become the pride of Malta although they are not the real McCoy.  I haven't tried them yet. I am afraid they will be just another unhealthy addiction and more statins will have to be added to my pillbox. If I am not a little more careful when it comes to food I shall see that long tunnel with a light at the end of it earlier than I had hoped.

A good couscous is not all that easy to make. A lumpy couscous can be inedible. The actual process of cooking the couscous is simple, but calls for a subtle handling of the grain. The aim is to make it swell and become extremely light, each grain soft, delicate, velvety, and separate from its neighbour. Alaine's couscous was just that, not a lump in sight.

She prepared two poussins stuffed with couscous, and there were two sauce boats with different sauces, and a huge dish of vegetables.  Chickpeas were served separately and of course what is couscous without harissa. It was all perfectly cooked and most enjoyable. Yum!

I knew that Peter had been working on his third volume of Memories. Yes, he had finished it and it is going to be launched next week. The first two volumes of this trilogy covered the first forty-seven years of his life. The first in Malta, the second the years abroad. In 1987 he started to prepare to move back after some fifteen years abroad and here he planned to start an art gallery. "In many ways I was homesick for Malta, but there were other factors," he told me. "The move went smoothly, and by autumn 1988 Melitensia Art Gallery was open for business." On the first of July 1989 Peter met Alaine with whom he would share the rest of his life. In Peter's words: "Since then twenty-eight happy years have elapsed, and hopefully many more to come."

So what can we expect of the third volume of Memories 1988-2017? "This volume describes the activities of the gallery, the people involved, artists and clients, and the role it played in the cultural history of the nation," Peter explains.

His life, like most lives has had its ups and downs, lucky in some things, unlucky in others. He quotes Winston Churchill: "I am an optimist. It does not seem much use being anything else." This attitude has pulled him through the difficult times.

This third volume is packed with photographs. We all love photos and many of us are more likely to read an autobiography which has plenty of photos instead of merely acres of print.

Alaine of course is full time on her silver research which is coming along nicely. She is an expert on Maltese silver and worked with Christie's in Geneva for thirteen years, eventually as head of the silver department, and also covered watches and objets d'art.

She was heavily involved in what was, possibly Patrimonju's best exhibition The Silver of Malta. Alaine brought the exhibits together and wrote the catalogue. I am sure you all remember that glittering exhibition which took place at the Palace and was meticulously organized by the late Maurice de Giorgio.

Apart from these three volumes of Memories Peter has also written a book about the well-known artist George Large who was introduced to local art lovers at the Melitensia Art Gallery.
He also wrote "Nonna Chica"- Orsola De Piro D'Amico and her descendants. "She had nine children," Peter comments. This substantial tome which I had never heard of before, has been organised in different chapters, each dedicated to one of the children and their descendants with photos aplenty. He obviously loves writing and although he has extensive archives he was helped by various members of the family to bring the available material together in one interesting book.

Then there is his novel Lost Generations which covers a span of twenty-seven years between the end of The Great War and the end of the Second World War. The hundred million human casualties of the two wars affected certainly more than one generation. Apart from the general slaughter and the horrors of war, the Holocaust added a dimension of evil never before imagined in human history. This story reflects the enormity of such senseless carnage and devastation, and the sheer inhumanity of civilized nations.

Peter is now working in full swing on a cookbook with the working title . "It is really for my grandsons who are born foodies. I hope to have it ready for next Christmas." 

And of course he will although in between Alaine and himself will be helping the Salesians and others quietly and without making any fuss.

 

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