Maltese vs Japanese food & cuisine

Maltese food focuses on fresh seafood, seasonal vegetables, olives, capers, citrus, herbs, good bread, and practical meats. The cooking is simple and honest, with flavors shaped directly by the land and sea.

What makes it stand out in a global contex is that you get touches of Sicily, North Africa, and the broader Mediterranean, yet it still feels distinctly local. Dishes are more rustic than refined, built from everyday ingredients, slow cooking, and clever preservation.

Japanese cooking is all about respecting ingredients and eating things when they’re at their best. All meals are built around rice – it’s the star of the show, not like Western meals with their appetizer-main-dessert thing. They follow this format called ichijuu sansai, which just means ‘one soup, three dishes.’ So you get miso soup, steamed rice, and three side dishes, a selection of protein or vegetable base.

Bread and pasta are supreme among grain foods in Malta. Ħobz, a crusty loaf available in white or brown varieties, accompanies meals for soaking up olive oil or sauces. Pastizzi — flaky pastries filled with ricotta cheese or mushy peas- are everyday street food. The strong Sicilian culinary heritage is evident in plenty of pastas  –  penne, rigatoni, and macaroni paired with tomato or pesto sauces. Unlike bread and pasta, corn and rice are relatively minor in traditional cooking.

Rice is what Japanese people eat every day, in many cases, 3 times a day, as rice is not just a side, but the center of the dish. Rice is transformed into sushi rice, seasoned with rice vinegar, onigiri rice balls, chirashi bowls, and fried rice. Rice is processed into sake rice wine, mirin sweet rice wine for cooking, rice vinegar, and mochi, pounded rice cakes.

Vegetables play a bigger role in Maltese cooking than many people expect. Simply grilled, roasted, or steamed vegetables are common. Salad is dominated by tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, bell peppers, and capers; olives also find their way into salads for a salty and briny flavor.

Dishes often center around vegetable in minestra (a hearty vegetable soup), kapunata (a cooked vegetable dish with eggplant, tomatoes and capers), bean stews, and vegetable pies.

Japan was effectively vegetarian for 1200 years, which created sophisticated vegetable-based cooking. There is a variety of veggie pickling techniques, including vinegar, miso, rice bran, salt, malted rice, mustard, and sake lees, aimed at imparting unique flavor and nutrition. Fresh vegetables are seasonal markers – for example, takenoko (young bamboo shoots) symbolizes spring more than any other vegetable.

Maltese cuisine is balanced around traditional meats – beef, pork and poultry consumption is very similar. Rabbit evolved from a historical staple for the poor into a national meat, famously prepared as stuffat tal-fenek (Maltese rabbit stew), a rich, slow-cooked dish with wine, tomatoes, garlic, and herbs.

Japan has the shortest history of eating meat compared to other Asian countries due to Buddhist vegetarianism, political idealism, and scarcity. In the 7th century, a ban on the consumption of four-legged animals took effect, but left fish out of it. Traditionally, the Japanese shunned meat as a result of adherence to Buddhism, but with the modernization in the 1880s, meat became common. The shift, though, happened slowly.

The quality and variety the fish and seafood in Malta is outstanding. People rely on the daily catch, dishes feature seasonal lampuki (mahi-mahi or dorado), octopus, swordfish, and small coastal fish. To flavor, cooks use tomatoes, olives, capers, garlic, herbs and good olive oil.

Historically, Japan did not have a lot of nutrient-dense food on land, so there was a time when the sea was the main food source. This geographic necessity evolved into culinary culture. Fish consumption in Japan is still among the highest in the world. Among Japanese choices, salmon and trout are very popular, as well as bluefin tuna, mackerel, butterfish, octopus, and salmon roe.

Milk consumption numbers bounce around from year to year, but overall consumption stays pretty high. Ricotta appears everywhere, British cheddar is popular along local gbejna, small round cheeses made from sheep’s or goat’s milk. Traditional soups often get enriched with eggs and a chunk of gbejna melting into the broth. For breakfast, people reach for plain yogurt, sometimes drizzled with honey or mixed with fresh fruit.

Japan definitely eats way more eggs than most countries. The average person goes through about 320-340 eggs per year, basically one egg every day. Those old meat bans probably played a part in this, but they aren’t the sole reason.

The numbers tell a pretty clear story: Malta consumes more sugar and sweeteners than almost anywhere else in Europe. A big chunk of that comes from soft drinks. In fact, Malta ranks second in per capita soft drink consumption, which explains a lot about where all that sugar is going.

Unlike Western meals, where dessert caps off dinner, traditional Japanese meals don’t end with sweet courses. Japanese sweets are closely tied to the tea ceremony and seasonal awareness. These delicate confections are typically made from sweet bean paste anko, rice flour, and sugar, with minimal use of dairy or eggs. Examples include mochi, dorayaki, and intricate seasonal wagashi.