Maltese vs South African 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.

South African cuisine combines indigenous traditions with diverse immigrant influences. What “local food” is depends much on the region.

In the Western Cape, European and Cape Malay roots shape meals: baked goods, savoury-sweet stews, pickles, and fragrant spices with little chili heat. KwaZulu-Natal and Durban show strong Indian influence with spicy curries, curry-filled loaves, and plenty of hot chilies. Rural diets often centre on maize pap, grains, beans, leafy greens, squash, and stews. Across the country, people share a love for meat cooked over fire, relishes add punch, and pap or bread anchors the meal.

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.

A discussion of South African food starts with maize. Unlike Latin America, where corn is used fresh, ground, and nixtamalized to highlight its flavor, South African maize is mostly a neutral, affordable staple. Sauces, stews, and relishes bring the taste.

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.

South Africans often use indigenous leafy greens and garden vegetables stewed with pap. Traditional leafy greens, known as morogo, are popular in rural and under-resourced communities. Butternut squash,  pumpkin, potatoes, onions, beans, carrots, and tomatoes also feature frequently. Many national dishes (for example chakalaka relish, umngqusho, vegetarian bredie) rely on these vegetables, often combined with beans for added nutrition.

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.

Meat matters a lot in South African cooking – people enjoy it whenever possible. The country’s livestock sector is strong, which means South Africans eat more meat on average than elsewhere in Africa. Beef, lamb, mutton, poultry, and also the exotic ostrich, springbok, impala, and sometimes crocodile appear on menus.

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.

Meat often gets the spotlight in South African food, yet coastal regions rely heavily on seafood. With access to two oceans, the country has a wide range of fish and shellfish, including kingklip, snoek, hake, kabeljou, sole, mussels, oysters, prawns, rock lobster, and calamari.

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.

Milk and dairy have a long history, though they were never central to the cuisine. Pastoral Bantu communities kept cattle for status, rituals, and milk. A key product is amasi, a thick sour fermented milk similar to yogurt, once essential before refrigeration and often served with pap. European settlement expanded the use of cream, cheese, and butter, but dairy remains less prominent than meat or maize.

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.

South Africans enjoy sweets mostly as occasional treats after a meal or with coffee or rooibos tea. Popular options include malva pudding with custard, milk tart, and sweet buns.