What they are
Ġbejniet are small round cheeselets, roughly the size of a flattened golf ball, made from sheep’s milk or goat’s milk. They are the single most Gozitan thing you can eat, and the island makes more of them and better than Malta does, because Gozo still has the flocks for it.
The name is a diminutive. One is a ġbejna, several are ġbejniet.
The four kinds
Friski, fresh. White, soft, barely set, eaten within a day or two. Mild and faintly sweet, and the version that surprises people who expect something sharper.
Moxxi, dried. Left to dry out until firm and yellowing. Sharper, saltier, and what goes into cooking.
Tal-bżar, peppered. Dried and then rolled in cracked black pepper, which is the version you will see stacked in jars at every market stall.
Fil-ħall, in vinegar. Preserved in vinegar with pepper, and the sharpest of the lot.
Where you will meet them
In a ftira, sliced over the top. In ravjul tal-ġbejna, the ravioli that is Gozo’s own, served with a simple tomato sauce. On a plate with galletti, tomatoes, olives and capers as the standard Maltese cold table. And crumbled into a soup or a baked pasta where a harder cheese would be used elsewhere.
Buying them
The Victoria market and the village shops sell them loose. A dairy sells them fresher and cheaper than a supermarket, and if you are offered them from a farm directly, take them. Fresh ones do not keep, so buy for the same day.
Elsewhere on the island
- Diving Diving in Gozo Why divers pick Gozo over Malta, the shore sites that make it unusual, what the water does through the year, and where the wrecks are.
- Fishing & farming Fishing in Gozo: the boats, the seasons and the fish Mġarr is the island's working harbour, not a picture of one. What the fleet catches, when each fish is in, and how to order so you are eating what came off a Gozo boat.
- Crafts & artists Bizzilla: Gozo lace and the ċombini Bobbin lace has been made on Gozo for nearly two centuries. What to look for, how to tell handmade from imported, and where it is still worked.