Azores

A lush chain of volcanic islands in the Atlantic, the Portuguese archipelago is shaped by the elements. So too is its cuisine, from rich, matured cheese to wines made from grapes grown on ancient lava flows.

- By Audrey Gillan. Photographs by Mauricio Abreu, Kyser, Audrey Gillan, Jorge Blayer Góis, Francisco Nogueira

The taste buds on the side of my tongue are tingling after eating São Jorge cheese. I wince; an apron-clad Gilberto Vieira laughs at my visceral reaction to the slice he cut for me in his grocery store. The room is packed with antique finds, chosen by Gilberto to give a flavour of what life was like in the Azores in the years after the Portuguese first discovered the islands in 1427. A meal at Quinta do Martelo - an ethnographical centre, restaurant and hotel, created over 32 years by Gilberto – begins here at the counter, with petiscos (small plates), which would've been eaten by the settlers who crossed the 1,000 or so miles of Atlantic ocean, travelling west from mainland Portugal. There's boiled corn with salt, tremoços (lupin beans), pickled sea fennel, fiery chilli paste, vinegary fava beans and wheat and corn bread, plus glasses of red wine mixed with orange soda.

Upstairs, in a time warp of a dining room, we tuck into alcatra, a spiced beef stew slow-cooked in a clay pot. It's the totemic dish of Terceira Island, one of nine volcanic islands that make up the Azores archipelago, and reflects the evolution of ingredients and tastes here, as well as the history of the Portuguese who moved here from the country's mountainous north east.

The early settlers on this archipelago – with its often-unforgiving landscape- survived on bland, simple food. But when Portugal embarked on the Age of Discovery in the 15th century, they encountered new spices and foods, and docked their caravels (small sailing ships) at Azorean ports to replenish. Dishes here changed dramatically. Suddenly, the local larder included sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and pepper. Winemaking, too, began to flourish.