History as told by Maltese cuisine

To the experts a typically Maltese dish is more than a mere gastronomic delight; it is also a history book!

Nadia Theuma, a lecturer in tourism studies at the University of Malta, for example, will tell you that the local cuisine is the result of the converging influences of different cultures that, together with the local environment, left their impact on this island in the middle of an important sea.

The lack of wood suitable for fire in the Maltese landscape led the local communities to develop slow-baking food preparation, traditionally using twigs and thistles to warm stones for pottery vessels containing food.

Maltese recipes are characteristically Mediterranean in typology, heavily dependent on bread, oil, potatoes, seasonal products, seafood and pasta.

Typical dishes such as patata il-forn (baked potatoes) and stuffat tal-fenek (rabbit stew) are emblems of national cuisine that characterise the ever changing history of these islands.

Modern British influences can be discerned from the importance of meat dishes in today's local kitchen.

Dr Theuma will be giving a lecture on the history of food in Malta today at 6.30 p.m. at the Vittoriosa local council's main hall at Couvre Porte. The lecture is being organised as part of Fondazzjoni Wirt Artna's public initiatives programme for this year, a programme that is jointly sponsored by the Malta Tourism Authority and the Cottonera Rehabilitation Project.