By Joe Mascarenhas
La Plage in French simply means the beach. The French trio of chef extraordinaire Morgan Rainforth, vivacious Florence Tarbooriech, who has added her touch to the interiors, and the maestro, Serge Lozano, make up the dynamic team that run this cosy eatery.

The logo on their card says it all - essentials for dining namely the knife, fork and spoon. Morgan is the fork, Florence is the knife and Serge is the spoon and together they have created a gourmet’s delight with their well thought out menu.
La Plage is located right on the Ashwem beach with colourful drapes and gives one a sense of warmth and a feeling of welcome. The menu is purely French with a twist and tweak here and there and this is for you to discover.
An absolute must is the Filet de kingfish en gravalax salade de pommes de terre douces a la moutarde. Well the French are normally very expressive, but the name says it all. The Kingfish fillet is cured for over 24 hours in sugar and salt, similar to the gravalax preparation of Norway, but with a very creative tweak. It is thinly sliced before service with a sweet potato salad and mustard sauce.  Tres bein! Simply terrific!
Another preparation is the moules gratinees en persillade, sorbet et tomate et basilica. Grilled mussels in their shells marinated with parsley, garlic butter, breadcrumbs and gratinated, and accompanied with a tomato and basil sorbet. The sorbet is used to cleanse the palate…shell licking good. For those who have something more familiar in mind, the terrine de foie de volaille, confiture d’oignon (chicken liver pate with onion jam) or the emince de calamari a la carbonara (thin slices of squid in carbonara sauce).
For the mains…now this section closes at 4 p.m. and reopens at 7.30 p.m. (the starters are, however, available throughout), the crevettes grilles a la thailandaise, sauce guacamole, salade de papaya verte. A tweak of Thai and Mexican - prawns dressed up in Thai herbs (galangal, lime and chilli) and served with an avocado sauce and green papaya salad... shades of East-West bonding in a delightful combo.
But the piece de resistance at its most creative is the thali au chocolat for dessert. Chef Morgan was inspired by the Indian Thali, and the platter comes with various chocolate preparations, creatively depicted. The mains here represented by chocolate fondant, chocolate opera cake, a tall glass of chocolate cappuccino (in lieu of the lassi), the spiced choc crispie s(instead of pickle), the chocolate almonds (snacks), the crème anglaise (raita) and the mint sorbet for cleansing the palate (shades of the after dinner paan?)
If Morgan is the fork…guess he ekes out the flavours from the ingredients, Serge the spoon...he ladles out hospitality effortlessly like the sauce on the dish ably assisted by Florence the knife, the support and back-up to the menage a trios.
In the final reckoning all I can say is can one really enjoy a repast so creatively prepared without the essential knife, fork and spoon? Indulge galore at La plage and you will be going back for more.