The most important island outside Maltese waters which was most frequented by the Maltese corsairs was Lampedusa. The kingdom of the Two Sicilies considered the island part of its dominions, but [...]
In the 18th century, Vincenzo Caruana provided the services of pasticciaro, including the preparation of sfingi to the various clients who wanted to grab a bite while going on with their [...]
Following the Ottomans’ surrender and Malta’s victory in the Great Siege of 1565 – marked to this day on the 8th of September as one of Malta’s national holidays – Grand Master De Valette planned [...]
A cursory look at the data collated from the Second World War Police Occurrences reports for the rural towns of Siggiewi and Zebbug provides interesting insights into the various products [...]
Used by the Aztecs and brought to the Mediterranean some four centuries ago from Central and South America, the prickly pear (bajtra tax-xewk) is a large cactus of the genus Opuntia. Each part of [...]
Writing about Malta in the 19th century, Louis de Boisgelin states that ‘figs when dried, furnish with a little barley bread the principal sustenance of the numerous and finely formed [...]
With its hooks and lockable box for meat, terracotta jars to store oil, and various tables, the dispensa served as a pantry or larder where to store food supplies. In 1798 the ground floor plans [...]
A 1611 dictionary defines the tinello as a common hall where ordinary servants and waiters attend and dine. As a matter of fact, inventories refer to benches and dining tables, among other [...]
In the 1798 inventory of the Inquisitor’s kitchen utensils and equipment, hurriedly drawn up before Napoleon’s invasion of the Maltese Islands, the sorbettiere in the credenza have [...]
The credenza was an integral part of every respected kitchen. It betrays an interesting development from an area where to store utensils to a sideboard, a furniture piece to store dishes. At the [...]