Today we’re talking about authentic Gozitan cheese and who doesn’t love cheese? This cheese, which the locals call ġbejniet is beloved and widely used on the Maltese Islands. It also pairs with almost anything, including salads, olives, crackers and vegetables, on a tray or even by itself. It just elevates every dish up a notch or two.
Ġbejniet were one of the first food items I was introduced to by my local friends, as they wanted to ensure that I knew what it was and that it was a locally-made product.
Let’s start off with the pronunciation of this magnificent cheese. As an American woman, I had to practice saying the word over and over again, in order to sound at least a tiny bit like I knew what
I was asking for at the local deli. It is the soft J in English, followed immediately by the B sound that I struggled with the most. If you’re not a local, you might find that it needs a little practice. Weeks later and I find myself still practicing, in order to go from the soft J to the hard B, without an additional syllable between the two.