The Poisson Rouge, Baga Bridge, Goa

Gregory Bazire is the chef/owner of the Poisson Rouge in Baga River, India and Andrew and I got to know him whilst we attended a teacher trainings course in India. Sushumna Yoga worked in partnership with Gregory to provide a vegan diet, which was 70% raw & living food, and I have to confess I was a bit nervous about it before we arrived. On the whole the food is very good and has been a positive and healthy experience. It was during conversation that we found out that Gregory had a restaurant about 25 minutes away from the centre. “Is that a vegetarian restaurant?” I asked “Why no,” he replied in a strong French accent as he shrugged his shoulders. He didn’t need to say anymore, after all he is French and from my experience the French do not ‘do’ vegetarianism on the whole.

Armed with this knowledge and after 3 weeks of vegan food we headed out for the day and stopped at the restaurant on our way back to the yoga centre. The restaurant was easy to find and had a great ambience to it. Due to the sunny climate here the restaurant is open air and set out in a typical French style. We were the first persons to arrive and we were shown to a cosy table in the corner. The first thing I have to say is about the toilet. Toilets in India are a rather disgusting affair on the whole and after spending the whole day exploring it was such a relief to find a clean toilet with toilet paper, soap and a real towel. We could have just spent the whole evening in the loo as it was such a luxury – but even we were not quite that sad, after all food was calling!

The next fortuitous thing that happened was a little kitten about 4-6 months old kept darting from table to table in a very fierce way and wouldn’t come to be petted how ever much I tried to call it. The waiter then just grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and brought him to me to pet, which I duly did and the little thing didn’t seem to mind too much before he darted off to the safety of the bushes. The restaurant was off to a positive start – great toilets and cats – the food was close to becoming a side affair, but you know me better than that!

The menu was interesting and although the food was described as Indo-French cuisine it seemed much more French than Indian to me, which suited me well as I was getting bored with Indian food. Andrew and I chose the same starter, alongside a basket of bread. The paneer and caramelised onion tartlet, was delicious, especially as we had been deprived cheese (and bread) for three weeks now. The onions were beautifully cooked and added a lovely sweetness to the tart. Yum Yum … good start.

We left vegetarianism behind and had fillet steak and chicken supreme for our main course and we salivated when the beautifully presented plate of forbidden food was placed on the table in front of us. Andrew’s steak came with a ginger port wine sauce whilst my chicken supreme was perfectly cooked and was accompanied by Bok Choy and mashed potato. Don’t think that our opinion on this food is clouded by the fact we have not eaten meat for three weeks, that only sharpened our taste buds and we both agreed that the food was first rate and was in fact one of the best French meals I have ever eaten.

Gregory popped out to see us to see how we were getting on and smiled a slow French smile, pleased that it was at his restaurant we had broken our vegetarian diet in such style. It would have been rude not to have pudding and we both plumped for the Chocolate Moelleux with vanilla ice cream and both groaned with delight as we saw the melted chocolate ooze out of the centre when we cut into it with our spoon. Bliss.

I decided to accompany the meal with my first alcohol since my arrival in India and decided to choose a glass of Indian wine and it was acceptable. In my heart of hearts I knew that if I ordered French wine it would have to be by the bottle and my early morning yoga practise would suffer as a consequence.

The bill, including tip, came to 4000 rupees, about £45. Although expensive for India, it is ridiculously cheap by UK standards. Definitely worth every penny and it was the perfect end to a pretty perfect day. I just need to find space in the final schedule to return and celebrate the end of the course. It’s a bit far from Carlisle otherwise!