Where should I eat in Algarve, and which local food or drink is worth trying?

The Algarve's emblematic dish is named after its pot. A cataplana is a hinged copper clamshell — Moorish in origin, like much of the region — in which clams, chouriço, peppers and white wine, or a full marisco mix of shellfish, are sealed and steamed at the table; order the cataplana de marisco in Portimão, Lagos or Tavira and it arrives still hissing when the waiter cracks the lid. The eastern towns eat from the lagoon: Olhão, the Algarve's biggest fishing port, built its reputation on the red-brick market halls of 1916 along its waterfront, and the restaurants facing them serve arroz de lingueirão — razor-clam rice, soupy and green with coriander — and conquilhas, tiny wedge clams steamed Algarve-style with garlic and white wine.

Season governs the rest of the menu. Sardines are a summer sacrament: grilled whole over charcoal from June through the Portimão Sardine Festival in early August, eaten on bread to catch the oils. On the west coast around Sagres and Vila do Bispo, the delicacy is percebes — goose barnacles pried from wave-smashed rocks at real risk to the harvesters, boiled in seawater and eaten with the fingers — alongside morego and locally caught turbot and sea bream in the village restaurants of the Costa Vicentina. Inland, the Serra de Monchique cooks mountain food: black-pork presunto, honey from the hills, and the firewater — medronho, distilled from the fermented berries of the arbutus (strawberry tree), traditionally made in small copper stills in winter and sold, where licensed, at strengths that deserve respect; the gentler local liqueur is amendoeira amarga, bitter almond.

For the region's top tables, the fine dining sits in the central resorts: Vila Joya in Albufeira — the first restaurant in Portugal to hold two Michelin stars (1999), under chef Dieter Koschina — and Ocean at Vila Vita Parc in Porches, also two stars, both built substantially on Algarve seafood. Sweets end the day everywhere: Dom Rodrigo, Lagos's little foil-wrapped pyramids of egg-yolk threads and almond named for a captured Moorish prince; morgado, the fig-and-almond layer cake; and oranges from Silves, so prized they carry a protected regional name. Eat lunch as the main meal — the market towns cook at noon — and reserve the resort restaurants for the splurge night.

Olhão at 1 p.m.: the market halls' cast-iron awnings shading counters of razor clams and cockles, and across the avenue the restaurant terraces filling with families, a cataplana landing on every third table, steam and shellfish broth on the breeze.

The Algarve's most famous drink is not wine. Medronho is unregulated rocket fuel in its unlicensed form — the stuff poured from unmarked bottles in Monchique village bars can run far stronger than the legal, labelled aguardente de medronho, which itself reaches about 48 percent alcohol. One small glass is the experience; the second is the story. The season to see it made is January to March, when the stills run after the autumn berry harvest.

• Olhão for the lagoon lunch — Tour the market halls mid-morning, then razor-clam rice at a waterfront table by 12:30 p.m.
• Cataplana where you sleep — Order it on a quiet night in your base town; it is made for two and takes its time
• West coast for percebes — Drive to Sagres or Vila do Bispo and eat barnacles where the harvesters land them

Sardines out of season (roughly November to May) are a shadow of the June fish, and many beach restaurants close entirely from November to February, especially in the smaller towns. Percebes are expensive per kilo and strictly quota-managed — a cheap pile is a suspicious pile. The famous-name restaurants book out weeks ahead in summer; the market towns' best tables fill by 1 p.m. with local families.

Plan one Olhão market lunch, one cataplana dinner, and one west-coast percebes run — and buy a labelled bottle of medronho in Monchique rather than accepting the unmarked one with a wink.