Despite the everlasting influence it has given on food in such distant places as Macau and Goa, Portuguese cuisine is fairly unknown outside Portugal. Often confused with Spanish cookery, it is, in fact, quite different. At its best, Portuguese food is uncomplicated constituents impeccably prepared. Founded on regional produce, especially fish, meat, olive oil, tomato, and spices, it boasts satisfying soups, home-baked bread and cheeses, as well as wonderful combinations of meat and shellfish.

For a comparatively small country, Portugal has astonishing gastronomic variety. The Estremadura area, which includes Lisbon, is famous for its seafood - the fish market at Cascais,  outside the lisbom, is  the largest in the country - although the yield of sausages and cheese elsewhere contributes a different attribute to the national cuisine. The Algarve, the final region of Portugal to accomplish independence from the Moors, and located on North Africa's threshold, contributes a centuries-old custom of almond and fig sweets.

Time-honoured Portuguese food is epitomised by fish.Indeed, the Portuguese have a long story of drawing culinary traditions from other peoples. The age of discovery was motivated by the want for exotic spices and ever since Vasco da Gama found the sea path to India at the turn of the sixteenth century, they've become very popular. Piri-piri, a Brazilian spice transplanted to the former African colonies is applied to flavour chicken and shrimp. Curry spices from Goa are usual seasonings. These spices are typically used very sparingly, adding delicate flavour and depth to dishes. It is these influences that have made Portuguese food so different from that of other Mediterranean regions.In Lisbon today has scores of restaurants.

If there is a common part of traditional Portuguese food, then it is fish. From the most common anchovy to swordfish, sole, sea bream, bass and salmon, the outdoor markets and reastaurant menus disclose the full extent of Portugal's love affair with seafood.  Bacalhau, salted cod, is the Portuguese fish and said to be the foundation for some 365 recipes, one for each day of the year. Two dishes are in particular notable. Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, basically a casserole of cod, potatoes and onion, is a Porto speciality and believed perhaps Portugal's greatest bacalhau recipe. From Estremadura comes bacalhau á bràs, scrambled eggs with salted cod, potatoes and onions.

There are enough of options for the meat-lover as well. Espetada, grilled skewers of beef with garlic, is popular, as is suckling pig (leitão). Cozido à portuguesa, a one-dish meal of beef, pork, sausage and vegetables, ponders the imagination of traditional cooking. A rather more strange combination is the pork and clams of porco à alentejana (pork Alentejo-style). Pork is also prepared with mussels na cataplana, with the wok-like cataplana locking in the flavours. Meanwhile, the city of Porto boasts tripa à moda do Porto (Porto-style tripe), supposedly a legacy from the years of Prince Henry the Navigator, when the city was left with nothing but tripe after providing the Infante's ships with food. To this day Porto natives are known as tripeiros, or tripe-eaters.

Cooked chicken (frango grelhado), seasoned with piri-piri, garlic, and/or olive oil, is among the few things that has established itself outside Portugal, where it may be found in cities with a big Portuguese population. The highly aromatic piri-piri chicken is frequently served in specialist restaurants.

Portuguese food: a hidden treasure.Soups comprise an integral part of traditional cookery, with all manner of vegetables, fish and meat used to create a assortment of soups and stews.  Caldo verde (literally green broth), made from a soup of  cabbage thickened with potato and containing a slice of salpicão or chouriço sausage, originated from the northern province of Minho but is now considered a national dish. Along with canja de galinha (chicken broth), caldo verde is a filling, comforting and ubiquitous favourite. For the more adventurous, caldeirada de lulas à madeirense (squid stew Madeira-style) features a characteristically Portuguese combination of seafood, curry and ginger. Another typical dish is the açorda where vegetables or shellfish are added to thick rustic bread to create a 'dry' soup.

Those with a sweet tooth may be curious to learn that one of Portugal's best-kept culinary enigmas is its vast and distinctive range of desserts, cakes and pastries. A staple of restaurant menus is chocolate mousse - richer, denser and smoother than foreign versions, while other favourites include arroz doce, a lemon and cinnamon-flavoured rice pudding. The most famous sweets, however, are the rich egg-yolk and sugar-based cakes, influenced by Moorish cooking and perfected by Guimerães nuns in the sixteenth century. For a uniquely Portuguese experience, the visitor should head for a pasteleria (or confeitaria), where the many varieties of cakes and other confections, as well as savoury delicacies like bolinhas de bacalhau, cod balls, are served. The Antiga Confeitaria de Belém, where the legendary pastéis de nata, delicious custard-filled tarts, are baked, is a Lisbon highlight. Nearby Sintra has its own traditional pastry, queijadas de Sintra (a type of cheese tart), which street vendors sell in packs of six.

The Portuguese attitude to food is simple and imaginative, traditional and inventive. Above all, enjoying good food and the social aspects of eating out is an esteemed part of everyday life. From informal cafes to world-class restaurants, all budgets and occasions are catered for. Tiny cafes and tascas, often no more than holes in the wall, abound. The opportunity to sample this largely unknown cuisine in all its variety is one of the real rewards of visiting Portugal.