La Plage | Goa, India
Only in Goa will you dine at a nice French restaurant on the beach with stray dogs begging at the side of your table and naked babies running around. It's hard to tell where La Plage restaurant ends and the beach begins. Sea views are standard for all and sand is the floor for most. Colorful fabric drapes from a ceiling made of dried palm fronds and an eclectic mix of tables and chairs fills the dining area. Reservations are usually required, unless of course you know someone, or, like us, you get lucky and are allowed to sit at the one "lounge" table in the whole place.
We didn't understand whether someone would come to us, or if we had to go to someone to get a couple of menus, but after about 15 minutes of waiting, we decided to flag someone down and ask. With our two blue, spiral bound laminated menus in hand we picked our order. My husband waved down a garcon to ask if we could order and he answered, "I will send someone to you. I'm not allowed to take orders. My handwriting's too shitty."
Our waiter arrived and it was a pina colada for me and a Kingfisher for Kelly, with a Himalayan water to share. For the meal, we chose ailes de poulet (carmelized chicken with a garlic and sesame sauce) and poisson a la moutarde maison (white fish with house mustard). The food arrived much faster than our menus and it was delicious. Melt in your mouth fish with a subtle mustard sauce and the chicken...oh so good. Each piece had the meat solely at the end, a bone as it's serving ware - like a savory lollipop. For dessert we had one of my favorite French desserts: ile flottante (floating island). Then, we followed the sand to la plage and the palm trees to catch the sunset before scootering back to our hotel.
