Since being named executive culinary director of two-and-a-half-year-old Oceania Cruises (800-531-5619), F&W contributing editor Jacques Pépin has been making great discoveries around the world. Here, a few standouts from a recent trip.

Saint-Malo, France, in Brittany. "My wife, Gloria, and I had our best meal in town at Le Café de Saint-Malo. The shellfish—stone crabs full of roe, small gray shrimp that reminded me of the ones I ate as a child in Lyon—looked so fresh that we ordered twice as much as we could actually eat" (4 Place Guy Lachambre; 011-33-2-99-56-4675).

Matosinhos, Portugal, near Oporto. "The amazing Mercado Municipal sells enormous polvo (octopus)and incredibly sweet figs (Rua França Junior; 011-351-22-937-6577). At a tiny restaurant nearby, Casa S. Martinho, we loved the slightly nutty fried sardines, and nothing cost more than $5 (68 Rua França Junior; 011-351-22-938-3822).

Published July 2005