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Unsurprisingly, given the region’s lengthy coastline, and the fact that few places are further than 30 miles from the sea, fish and seafood dominate the menus of the Southwest. There’s both a great abundance (despite the relative decline of the fishing industry in recent decades, it’s still a thriving business in many ports, ensuring a constant supply of the freshest ingredients) and a wonderful variety, from chip-shop classics, such as cod and halibut, to gourmet favourites like monkfish, sea bream, John Dory, oysters, tiger prawns, lemon sole and lobster. More than 40 local species are caught and cooked commercially. You’ll find fish offered in the fanciest forms possible – such as ‘marinated salmon with passion fruit, lime and coriander’ at Rick Stein’s celebrated Seafood Restaurant in Padstow – and the simplest, as exemplified by the battered fish and chips and crab sandwiches offered in the region’s pubs.

Lamb, reared on the region’s rich grasslands, is the Southwest’s meat of choice. Game, such as grouse hunted on Exmoor and Dartmoor, also has a sizable market, as does locally reared venison. The region’s organic, handmade sausages are some of best around.

If you asked people to name a dish that summed up the Southwest, most would probably opt for the Cornish pasty. These days it’s a near-ubiquitous fast food sold in outlets across the country, and not generally seen as particularly sophisticated fare. But just as a burger from McDonald’s bears little relation to something organic, grass-fed and home-made, so the cellophane-wrapped gristly parcels sold at the nation’s train stations are not good representatives of this fine baking tradition. For the best pasties, you need to head to a local bakery where you’ll be sold delightful, tightly-filled envelopes of flaky pastry, carefully crimped around the edges (so as to form a sort of pastry ‘handle’ by which to hold it) and filled with the classic ingredients of steak, onions, potato and sometimes swede (known locally as yellow turnip) in a moist gravy. Avoid anything prepackaged in plastic or microwaveable. These days there are several other fillings available; some acceptable (pork and apple, lamb and mint), some not (chicken balti).

The food was invented in mining communities as a sort of ready-meal to be eaten underground on the job, and was originally supposed to be an all-in-one main course and dessert, with a savoury filling at one end and a sweet at the other, separated by a pastry wall. The pastry case not only made it easy to eat, so the workers didn’t have to carry cutlery, but the thick crimped seam stopped them from contaminating the meat – the seam was usually thrown away uneaten.

The Cornish are justly proud of their pasties, and not a little grateful – these days it’s a £150-million-plus industry, which probably goes some way to explaining why the Cornish Pasty Association are currently lobbying the EU to have the dish awarded geographical protection, like champagne or Parma ham, so that only pastry parcels created in the county can legally call themselves ‘Cornish’.

Other savoury specialities of the region, albeit much less commonly encountered, include cobbler, a heavy hearty meat dish from Devon, a bit like a casserole topped with a thick scone, and the surreal-looking star gazey pie, a fish pie made using seven different species with the heads and tails left sticking out of the pastry (for ease of identification, apparently, see here for more).

The West Country is also well known as the originator of the cream tea, although whether it was developed first in Cornwall or in Devon is still hotly debated. It’s a simple offering, consisting of a selection of light, fluffy scones, thick locally produced jam (typically strawberry), clotted cream and a pot of good well-brewed tea, but done well it is a meal to rival any other. Unfortunately, it is done fairly badly fairly often, particularly at on-site cafés at tourist attractions. Head to the local village teashop to experience a real West Country cream tea.

Less well-known delicacies include saffron cake, a currant loaf coloured yellow, and lightly flavoured, with a little saffron, Cornish heavy cake – a stodgy fruity concoction – and various types of fudge.

Moving on to the cheese course, the region’s many dairy farms produce a great variety of produce, from the nation’s favourite, Cheddar, as served up in ploughman’s lunches across the country – at its best in its tangy, sharp mature state – to the mild creamy Cornish yarg which comes wrapped in a mouldy (though edible) rind of nettles.