Portuguese discoveries a ground-breaking voyage commanded by Vasco da Gama. The squadron of Vasco da Gama left Portugal in 1497, rounded the Cape and continued along the coast of East Africa, where a local pilot was brought on board who guided them across the Indian Ocean, reaching Calicut in western India in May 1498. The second voyage to India was dispatched in 1500 under Pedro Álvares Cabral. While following the same south-westerly route as Gama across the Atlantic Ocean, Cabral made landfall on the Brazilian coast. This was probably an accidental discovery, but it has been speculated that the Portuguese secretly knew
Fishing in Portugal preserve the codfish; drying and salting are ancient techniques to keep many nutrients and the process makes the codfish tastier. The Portuguese tried to use this method of drying and salting several fishes from their waters, but the ideal fish came from much further north. With the "discovery" of Newfoundland in 1497, Portuguese fishermen started fishing its cod-rich Grand Banks. Thus, ' became a staple of the Portuguese cuisine, nicknamed ' (faithful friend). From the 18th century the town of Kristiansund in Norway became an important place of producing bacalao or klippfish, which is also exported to Portugal. In Portugal,