Malta

Duck into any Maltese bar and hand over small change for a pastizz, a hot diamond of flaky pastry oozing ricotta or mushy peas — the island's everyday street food, eaten standing up with a bittersweet Kinnie, the local orange-and-herb soda. Malta's cooking is Sicilian and North African and faintly British all at once, worked from bread, tomatoes, capers, broad beans and sheep's cheese.

The great sit-down ritual is the fenkata, a rabbit feast that became an act of Maltese identity when islanders defied their rulers' hunting rules: fenek marinated overnight in wine and bay, served first as spaghetti in the rich sauce, then as stew. Around it circle ġbejniet cheeselets, peppery and fresh; crusty ftira bread, its making UNESCO-listed; and in autumn a lampuki pie of dorado and vegetables. A Cisk lager or an island red sees you through.