Maltese vs Ethiopian food & cuisine

Malta

SEASONINGS

Maltese cuisine leans towards fresh herbs for flavoring rather than strong spices, which are actually used subtly. Mint, parsley, capers, and garlic are some of the signature ingredients that define the Maltese flavors.

Traditional dishes often feature tomato sauces made from fresh tomatoes or paste. Tomato paste, called kunserva by locals, is a thick and concentrated product created by simmering tomatoes until the moisture evaporates. Another characteristic ingredient is tadam imqadded – sun-dried tomatoes, which are widely used for their intense tomato flavor. Red wine and anchovies are often used for depth; olive oil is a primary fat.

MALTAISE SAUCE is a well-known variation of the classic French Hollandaise, made with butter, egg yolks, and lemon juice. It takes Hollandaise as a base but substitutes lemon juice with orange juice, resulting in a still citrusy yet slightly sweeter sauce. It is likely not a common menu item in Malta, but more of a French culinary creation that uses a Maltese ingredient.

Ethiopia

SEASONINGS

Ethiopian food is spicy, but that’s not really the point. The heat comes layered with cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, and fenugreek, so it reads as warm and complex, not just hot. There’s a faint smokiness, too. And there is the sour. Injera is fermented, and that tang runs through every bite.

Ethiopian flavor logic is fat, aromatics, spice, and time. In that order.

Dishes start with niter kibbeh. This is spiced clarified butter, and it’s the fat base for almost everything. You’re infusing butter with onions, garlic, ginger, turmeric, fenugreek, black cumin, and Ethiopian cardamom, korarima. This is a less sweet, less floral, and more earthy spice, with a slightly smoky edge. That fat carries all of it deep into whatever you cook next.

Onions are hugely important in Ethiopian food, used in almost every dish and simmered into sauces.

Then there’s berbere, the master spice of meat dishes, lentil dishes, bean dishes. A dry spice blend, but complex, using from 13 to more than 20 spices. Chili, fenugreek, coriander, rue, korarima, black pepper, allspice. Some families toast whole spices and grind fresh; the ratios are personal.  Spices bloom in the fat.

BERBERE — a foundational spice blend built on chili peppers, garlic, ginger, fenugreek, korarima, cinnamon, and cloves. It gives Ethiopian food its signature heat, depth, and slightly smoky edge.

MITMITA – A finer, fiercer blend built around bird’s eye chili, cardamom, cloves, and cumin. Hotter than berbere and used as a finishing spice, sprinkled at the table over kitfo (raw minced beef) and other meat dishes. Unlike berbere, it typically includes salt.

MEKELESHA – Ethiopia’s finishing spice mix, stirred into stews in the last few minutes of cooking. The blend consists of seven hand-roasted spices: korarima, nutmeg, cinnamon, black pepper, cumin, timiz pepper, and cloves. The name means, more or less, “to make tasty.”

SAUCES

AWAZE – A traditional sauce or spice paste, made by combining berbere and mitmita with tej (Ethiopian honey wine) and oil.  Served with meats and is used as an all-purpose table condiment.

DATTA (also called qotchqotcha) – a fermented condiment used similarly to awaze, mainly in the southern part. Its aromas and flavors stem from microbial fermentation of a vegetable-spice mixture. Spices include garlic, ginger, sweet basil, rue, cinnamon, clove, Ethiopian caraway, and Ethiopian cardamom. Tangier and more herbal than awaze, it’s a regional alternative.