Maltese vs Thai 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.

At its core, Thai cuisine consists of lightly prepared yet boldly flavored dishes, highlighted by herbs and aromatics. Thai meals are built on jasmine rice, noodles, fish, seafood, and then various fermented fish products, chilies, lime, coconut milk, palm sugar, lemongrass, galangal, Thai basil, and many more characteristic spices layer the complexity of flavors.

Thailand is constantly ranked among the world’s spiciest cuisines.

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 foundational to almost every meal: a base to soak up sauces, balance and tone down spiciness, and harmonize contrasting flavors. Jasmine rice is the most common, as they are aromatic, slightly nutty, fluffy, and gets a slightly sticky texture after cooking. Sticky or glutinous rice is popular in Northern Thailand and eaten with hands. Other varieties include red rice and brown jasmine rice.

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.

Typical veggies of Thai cuisine are various eggplants, like the pea-sized makhuea phuang and the egg-sized makhuea suai, often eaten raw. Although broccoli is often used in Asian restaurants in the West, it is rarely seen in Thailand. Here, khana is used, for which broccoli is a substitute. Long beans, bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, cucumbers, Chinese kale, choy sum, sweet potatoes, several types of squash, and winged beans are often-used vegetables. Leafy vegetables and herbs are eaten raw in a meal or as a side dish.

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 is moderate in Thailand. Pork leads the popularity, followed by chicken, duck, beef, and water buffalo. Goat, lamb, and mutton are rare, except among Muslim Thais in the Southern part.

The Thai diet is traditionally fish and rice-based; meat complements dishes, not dominates. Recent surveys indicate that although about three-quarters of Thais eat meat, around two-thirds express interest in reducing their meat consumption, favoring alternative plant-based proteins instead.

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.

Pescatarians could thrive with Thai food – hundreds of dishes contain fish and seafood from rivers, lakes, ponds, paddy and tropical seas. Mackerel, Asian sea bass, Nile tilapia, catfish, and fishballs are enjoyed throughout the country. The diversity of seafood is also remarkable. Shellfish, crustaceans served fried, raw, or fermented. Every part of the seafood is valued, from the heads and roe to the tender flesh, often cooked with coconut milk, steamed, or fried with noodles.

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.

Traditional Thai cuisine is mostly dairy-free, lactose intolerance is quite common among Thais (around 47% to 80%). Dairy consumption started to develop only in the 1960s. Today, milk, butter, yogurt, and specialty cheeses are available mostly in urban areas. Traditional Thai food largely uses coconut milk as a creamy ingredient instead of dairy milk.

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.

Coconut milk is an absolute staple (coconuts are reported under ‘oilcrops’ in FAO data). Its extensive use was likely influenced by South Indian coconut milk curry traditions, adapted over time and now inseparable. Thais not only consume the nut (actually a drupe), but also make use of the growth bud of the palm tree as a vegetable. From the stalk of the flowers comes a sap that can be used to make coconut vinegar, alcoholic beverages, and sugar.