Typical food

Maltese food is strongly influenced by different cultures, for example by Sicilian, English, Spanish and Maghrebin culture.

The most famous food that can be found is pastizz. It's a traditional savory pastry that can have different fillings: the most common pastizzi are with ricotta and with curried peas. Then, there are some different variations like pastizzi with chicken. 

They have a diamond-shape and they can be fried or baked in an oven and they are the original Maltese fast food. In fact, in the past, they were bigger than now, but now their shape has been reduced because people used to eat many of them and that wasn't healthy.

Another typical dish is rabbit meat. It can be fried or served as a stew and is mostly confused with chicken by foreigners. It has a rich flavor and it's a popular choice among local people.

They also have timpana, which is a pasta pie, made of macaroni or penne. Then, they add a rich Bolognese-style sauce, often improved with chicken livers, cheese and eggs. After that, all is put into a pastry case and cooked in the oven

Regarding the drinks, there is kinnie. It's a soft drink and it's like Chinotto or Gingerino. It has a bittersweet flavor thanks to a particular bitter orange with which it's produced.

Eating out

In Malta, there are lots of different restaurants. Mostly they serve international food and we tried an Italian restaurant called "Surfside Bar&Grill". It is in Sliema and it offers different Italian dishes like Pizza, with good toppings, and Pasta with Pesto, alla Carbonara or with a meat sauce and mushrooms. But, the strong point of the restaurant is the terrace overlooking the bay of Sliema.

Apart from expensive restaurants, in Malta you can also find different fast food chains like McDonald's, Burger King, Kfc and Starbucks.

During our stay in Malta, we ate, above all, at our host families and we had different experiences. Most of us ate quite well: at breakfast, we had cereal, biscuits and milk like we normally do in Italy. At lunch, we didn't eat at home, because our families made packed lunches for us: they gave us a sandwich with ham, butter and lettuce, they also handed us water and a little snack. 

For dinner, we ate at home: our families preparead us typical dishes like pastizzi or they made Lasagne, pasta, chicken or fish. In the dishes they prepared, they put lots of onion and peas, that are two common ingredients that you can find in every Maltese dish.

Something sweet....

Last, but not least we want to suggest a Maltese traditional recipe for that is also a vegan recipe. It has a strong connection with the history of the island, since it was introduced by the Knights of Malta and it still is very popular. It's called Kwarezimal, which comes from the Latin, Quaresima. 

In fact, they are baked during the forty days of Lent. First of all, you prepare the dough, mixing almonds, sugar and spices in a bowl. Then you add eggs, orange juice and vanilla extract. After that, you roll the dough into a log shape and cut into 6 pieces. Then you bake them and at the end, you brush with honey and sprinkle with roasted almonds.

Cristian Pase, Alice Perin, Giovanni Basso-Luca and Gabriele Calderone