Food & drink
A local treat! All you need to know about the traditional Maltese fenkata
What it is, what to expect and where to experience the traditional Maltese fenkata.

Melanie Drury

So what’s a fenkata, I hear you ask? Fair question. Fenek is Maltese for rabbit and, quite simply, a fenkata is a rabbit feast. Feasting on rabbit meat is an age old tradition in Malta. Rabbit has a sweet, soft white meat and is regarded as one of Malta’s signature dishes.

How did the tradition of feasting on rabbit begin?

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Up until a few centuries ago, livestock was hard to maintain in Malta due to the islands’ lack of grazing ground. The nobility, therefore, had first access to meat, with peasants filling their bellies with fish that was abundantly available in our seas.

When the ban on rabbit hunting was lifted during the era of the Knights of St John, Maltese commoners relished the access to an alternative white meat.

Interestingly enough, this might have led to the fenkata’s association with celebration.

There have been many accounts of rabbit being eaten throughout Malta’s history. In a book called Fenkata: An emblem of Maltese Peasant Resistance, the author, Carmel Cassar recalls how, in the 1500s, Apulian painter Gio. Mattheo Stagno scandalised fellow painters by eating a rabbit pie.

Another account is that of Clara Sguro, who was arrested in 1604 after breaking into the house of noble Antonio Inguanes in Dingli. During the compilation of evidence in court, she said that she only stole meat out of necessity and only had a rabbit pie, eggs, and cottage cheese to eat.

By 1801, the British had arrived in Malta and were encouraging Maltese men to join the militia.

This meant that many Maltese men were given guns and could thus hunt without the need for a permit. In turn, this made rabbit hunting even more popular.

In fact, in 1930 a journalist of the ‘The Daily Malta Chronicle’ wrote that “for very many years, the breeding and rearing of rabbits has been regarded as an occupation, bordering pass time”.

Up until recently, rabbit brains were even used as baby food, making rabbit the first meat that most Maltese babies ate. It was commonly believed that eating rabbit brains would make babies smarter.

Over the years, rabbit went from being boiled with little to no seasonings to being deliciously fried, grilled, stuffed, and baked. Many are the professional chefs that are nowadays incorporating this relatively unusual meat in an array of delectable dishes.

What defines a fenkata?

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A fenkata is traditionally held outside the home, usually at a simple no-frills establishment in a rural village. Picture wooden tables pushed together and chairs running along the side, with a large family, group of friends or colleagues sitting together ready to feast.

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There will be wine, lots of it. And there will be messy fingers - using a fork and knife just isn’t the way to do it. The feast will be in the form of a two or three course meal consisting of a variety of rabbit-based dishes; this is likely born of the necessity to satisfy many mouths from the meat yield out of a couple of small rabbits. Those mouths will also be very busy chatting loudly and laughing like there’s no tomorrow, while guzzling more of that delicious wine.

What’s on the menu?

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The most common starter is spaghetti with rabbit sauce. While you wait for that, you might be offered fried offals garnished with herbs and perhaps some snails and arjoli; in Malta, in contrast with the elite’s delicacy in France, snails are a farmer’s dish. The main course will be chunks of rabbit meat served with fries or roast potatoes and some vegetables. You can usually opt for two versions, either stewed or fried, even on the same table; otherwise you are just served the house speciality. 

Spagetti tal-fenek (spaghetti with rabbit sauce) is made with a rich tomato sauce with garlic, peas and herbs. Fenek moqli (fried rabbit) comes with lots of garlic and seasoning, while stuffat tal-fenek (rabbit stew) is made by simmering the rabbit meat in a rich wine and tomato sauce infused with bay leaves.

Arrive hungry, as fenkata portions tend to be massive and highly likely to put you into a food coma - we did say the fenkata is a feasting of sorts, while gluttony seems to be a national sport.

Where can you get the best fenkata?

Right. You are bound to find rabbit dishes in Maltese restaurants, but that’s not the same as a fenkata. A fenkata is traditionally held in the north of the island, off the beaten track in places such as Mgarr, Bahrija and Dingli, that are home to Malta’s iconic fenkata restaurants. Mgarr is in fact the fenkata capital of the island.

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25th September 2022


Melanie Drury
Written by
Melanie Drury
Melanie was born and raised in Malta and has spent a large chunk of her life travelling solo around the world. Back on the island with a new outlook, she realised just how much wealth her little island home possesses.

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