AZORES

he 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 (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 (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.