The food of Porto Santo

Lentil soup with sweet potato and pumpkin, cabbage with pork, carne de vinho e alhos with bread dipped in lard, tuna or mackerel with molho de vilão, and fragateira — several fish stewed on a base of tomato, potatoes and onion.

A cuisine of scarcity, born of dry soils: ranchões, saramagos and perrexil (rock samphire) are boiled and seasoned, and serralhas are eaten in salads instead of lettuce.

Sweet bread that on Porto Santo takes the shape of a chapel, baked for the Santos Populares and much loved around São João and São Pedro.

Hard biscuits with a salty taste, sweet rosquilhas and spiced broas de mel, alongside bolo de mel — the honey cake of centuries-old recipes served with local wine or liqueur — eaten above all at Christmas.

The island's seasonal fruit: melon, watermelon, figs and tabaibos (prickly pears). In summer, stalls in the Ribeiro Cochino car parks sell grapes, watermelon and figs alongside bolo do caco.

The island's ice creams, with more than 50 years of history: the most iconic of the archipelago and a true symbol of Porto Santo.

Beef threaded on a bay-wood skewer and grilled over embers. It is one of the most emblematic dishes of the traditional kitchen, present at every arraial and every gathering. It was not always everyday food: because beef was dear, it used to be eaten only by some families at religious feasts, romarias and arraiais. Its secret is simplicity — in the cooking and in the seasoning. On Porto Santo it is served at the barracas of the Festas do Concelho and in the mountain restaurants.

Maize flour cooked into a polenta: creamy while hot, firmer once cooled, which is what makes it right for frying. Cut into cubes and fried, the milho frito is served across the island as the classic companion to emblematic dishes, the espetada first among them.

A creamy, full-flavoured soup. Recipes vary, but pork, vegetables and wheat are what make it: the wheat gives the body, the pork the depth. It belongs to the family of pot dishes that carried the island through its lean centuries.

Tuna is abundant in the seas around the archipelago and turns up in many regional dishes, but the tuna steak is the speciality. Marinated for hours in the seasonings, it is fried in very hot oil; the marinade then becomes the sauce that goes with it. Porto Santo also dries and salts its own bonito, the gaiado.

A tender steak inside a bolo do caco spread with garlic butter — the light meal of the archipelago, eaten standing at a festival stall or sitting on a terrace. On Porto Santo the bread is the island's own: taller, wider, and without sweet potato.

Small pieces of meat in a sauce, served on a single platter for everyone to share, with chips. It is made for relaxed meals in good company; the last pleasure of the dish is to soak a piece of bolo do caco in what is left of the sauce.

The black scabbardfish is caught in the deep waters of the Atlantic and is one of the stars of the regional fishery, with soft flesh and a mild taste. The fishing tradition belongs to Câmara de Lobos on Madeira, where fishermen have gone out for it for generations. The fillet is traditionally breaded and fried, and often served with fried banana.

Pork marinated in garlic, white wine and spices, traditionally prepared for Christmas Eve. After several days in the marinade the meat is fried and served on the plate or stuffed into a papo-seco — the famous carne de vinha d'alhos sandwich. Acidity, spice and a soft texture: it is one of the dishes most deeply rooted in the island's food culture.

A cake made with sugar-cane honey, spices and dried fruit, an inheritance of the island's sugar past. Its origins go back to the fifteenth century, when Madeira was one of the world's great cane producers. Its flavour is intense and it keeps for months, which turned it into a Christmas tradition that spills over the rest of the year. Broas de mel are its small, biscuit-sized relatives.

Produced by fermenting and distilling sugar-cane juice, with centuries of refinement behind it. It comes both as natural rum and in aged versions, certified and widely awarded. It is the spirit at the base of poncha, which is why a bar's rum matters as much as its lemons.

A drink from Câmara de Lobos, made for hot bright days: ice cream, pineapple, pineapple juice and white beer, blended into something creamy and tropical. Alcohol-free versions swap the beer for a soft drink and keep the fruit.

Born in Madeira in 1872, the Laranjada is one of the oldest soft drinks in the world. Fizzy, with the taste of orange peel, it is often mixed with wine or with Coral beer at the archipelago's festivals — a habit that has become part of the culture.

Created in 1970, it was the world's first soft drink based on pure passion-fruit juice. It is made with the purple passion fruit widely grown on Madeira and lightly sparkling water. The island grows several varieties of the fruit — purple, Brazilian yellow and an F1 hybrid — each with its own aroma.

A lager brewed with Czech malts and hops, golden, mild and light-bodied, fermented and matured at low temperature. It is the beer of the archipelago's celebrations, and the one poured beside the espetada and the bolo do caco.

The anona reached the archipelago in the seventeenth century: white creamy flesh, a sweet, delicate taste, eaten raw or in juices and desserts, and holding a Protected Designation of Origin. The passion fruit stands out for its aroma and turns up everywhere — in poncha, in Brisa Maracujá, in desserts and even in sauces for fish.