Beyond the proliferation of pizzerias, pasta houses and snack bars, there are occasional gourmet restaurants and a good range of places serving fresh fish.

The latter can be anything from family-run seaside cafés to fully-fledged restaurants which entice you in with their tanks full of live lobsters. Menus are almost always translated into English.

The following are a few of the local dishes which you may come across if you happen to eat in restaurants serving Maltese cuisine.

High standards of cuisine were introduced to Malta by the Knights. Food came high on the list of priorities for this supposedly monastic and frugal order.

To serve their tastes, chefs were shipped in from abroad, wine flowed in from France and ice was imported from the snowy peak of Mount Etna, on the island of Sicily.

Foreign influences still play a major role in Maltese cuisine. The island’s close proximity to Italy has inevitably determined its favourite dish of pasta; the British left their mark in the form of roast beef, apple pie and fish and chips.

The real local dishes, however, have the unmistakable stamp of the Mediterranean. Essential ingredients are the local herbs and vegetables, such as sun-ripened tomatoes, green peppers, marrows, aubergines and artichokes.

Made into bulky Maltese soups, and eaten with the local crusty bread, these make a more than adequate meal.

Fish is abundant and comes steamed, braised or grilled. choose from sea bream, swordfish, grouper, tuna, pilot fish, amberjack, prawns, lobsters – and many more.

Autumn brings the lampuka, a fish that breeds near the Nile Delta and swarms around the Maltese coast in September and October. The somewhat enigmatic taste has been compared to cod, mackerel and whitebait! It is perhaps best tasted in the form of lampuka pie, cooked with tomatoes, onions, parsley, peas and cauliflower, then encased in crispy pastry.

Among Malta’s few regional meat dishes is bragioli, similar to beef olives, made with thin slices of beef wrapped round a minced meat, egg and bacon stuffing. Done well it is delicious.

A favourite and long-established Maltese dish is rabbit. This is served in a variety of forms, which you can taste by going out for a traditional fenkate (or ‘rabbit evening’).

This stars with spaghetti in rabbit sauce, followed by a fried rabbit or rabbit stew (complete with liver and kidneys); the meal ends with nuts and figs.

Ideally you should experience this in a basic country bar full of villagers and wash it down with lots of local wine. The village of Mgarr on Malta is the place to try it.

The majority of Malta’s restaurants serve Italian food and range from basic pasta houses to 4-star restaurants. In addition there are pubs and cafés serving typical British fare, a smattering of ethnic restaurants (particularly in St Julian’s), a small handful of top-notch French restaurants and a multitude of fast-food outlets.

Simple local villages bars, often a stone’s throw from the village church, can produce some surprisingly wholesome meals at rock-bottom prices.

Cheese

Gbejna sheep’s milk cheese, served either fresh, half-dried or peppered. A speciality of Gozo, this comes in small rounds and is excellent with the local bread and tomatoes.

Bread

Maltese bread (hobz) is very crusty on the outside and soft inside. According to a national newspaper survey the average daily consumption is a kilo of bread per person! If you taste the real thing, made by traditional methods (as still used in Qormi) you will probably understand why.

Meals worth a try in Malta

• A pastizz (plural pastizzi) is a traditional savoury pastry from Malta. Pastizzi usually have a filling (tal-ħaxu) either of ricotta (pastizzi tal-irkotta, cheese cake) or mushy peas (pastizzi tal-piżelli, pea cake). Pastizzi are a popular, traditional and well-known Maltese food.

• Aljotta, a lemony, herb-rich fish soup, is one of the signature dishes of the Mediterranean island of Malta.
• Imqaret is a traditional Maltese sweet made with pastry and a filling of dates. The word imqaret in Maltese, is the plural of maqrut (diamond-shaped) and it signifies the diamond shape of the sweets – even though in many cases they are sold in a rectangular shape. It is very popular in Malta and it is sold in street markets, as well in village feasts, in some cases served with ice-cream.

• The name "Hobz biz-zeit" means in English simply "bread with oil" but there is much more to it than just that. Thick slices of bread are spread with the beloved sweetish tomato paste called kunserva and topped with capers, olives, garlic, black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil. Sometimes tuna or anchovies are added. It is a great snack as well as an appetizer and is often served as nibbling food in local bars when ordering a drink in the evening.