Maltese vs Libyan 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.

Libyan cuisine overlaps with Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, mostly with staple olives, olive oil, dates, lamb, beef, beans, nuts, couscous, tagine and shakshouka. Libya eats less cereal than its Maghreb neighbours but consumes more fat, meat, and seafood. Animal-origin foods make up about 33 % of its diet, far above neighboring countries. Tea drinking is a daily social ritual.

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.

Most Libyan meals start with a familiar base like couscous, pasta, rice or barley. Wheat shows up in many forms, especially breads and porridges. People still prepare dough the way their ancestors did, using simple ground grains that turn into hearty, comforting food. These doughs and breads do more than fill the plate. They carry sauces, balance strong flavors and make meals feel complete.

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.

Vegetables matter a lot in everyday cooking. Tomatoes, onions and garlic form the base, often with sweet or chili peppers, zucchini, eggplant, pumpkin or leafy greens. Tomatoes are so important in Libyan cuisine that the country is among the top five tomato consumers per capita in the world! Vegetable proteins come mostly from pulses: chickpeas, lentils, dried beans and fava beans. These appear as falafels, bean soups, and bean-and-vegetable stews.

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.

Lamb and other small ruminants are the preferred meats in Libya, and chicken is what feeds people every day. Serving plenty of lamb signals status and generosity, a tradition tied to religious celebrations where animal sacrifice is important. Families historically saved all year to buy a sheep and used every part of it. They wasted hardly anything, which is also reflects in high popularity of offal dishes like osban and fasooliya bil kersha. 

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.

Because much of Libya is desert and far from the sea, fresh fish never became a core staple. The Mediterranean off Libya yields relatively few large catches, limiting fish stocks near shore. During colonial times, Europeans brought in canned foods. After independence, urbanization and changing lifestyles made quick-prepared meals more common. Canned tuna rose in popularity — its long shelf life and convenience made it good for salads, sandwiches, pasta and stuffed vegetables.

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.

The use of dairy in cooking is typically simple: fermented laban (a drink similar to buttermilk), jben (a soft cheese), and rayeb (a homemade yogurt). Cheese is not a major staple, but is liked for salad and breakfast.

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.

Food in Libya is prepared with olive oil; there is not even such a thought of having ‘too much olive oil’. Once in Libya, you would need to adjust your palette to sense local olive oil everywhere.