Long saught-after indulgences of Long Island
Nestled away on the rocky beach on the “North Fork” of Long Island, La Plage attempts to re-create the atmosphere of a French bistro with some success. We found ourselves there on a bitterly cold winter’s night - minus 10 celsius and a howling wind blowing off the Sound. We were hoping for a warm welcome, and we weren’t disappointed.
As you’d expect for such a maritime location, seafood featured prominently: clams, local oysters, fish in abundance, and more. We decided that a balanced approach was best, lest we overdose on the fruits of the sea.
Best of the starters (and possibly best dish of the night) was the beef carpaccio with white truffle oil, machego cheese, salad greens and sage vinaigrette. I’ve written before about the highs and lows of truffle dishes. They should be exquisite, a delight of flavour: but often fall flat through a chef’s failure to consider why it would suit this dish, but not that one. On this occasion, the carpaccio was a perfect match to the truffle oil, with the salad greens and vinaigrette complementing the textures and flavours with a crisp, acidic counterpoint. Overall everything was well-balanced, although the beef had been chilled too much, preventing its flavour coming through. Still, a delicious dish.
We chose a local rose to accompany the dishes. This was the Waters Crest 2010 Rose, which was very Provençal in style, dry and full. It was a fantastically good wine, so much so that we then decided we’d visit the winery the following day to buy more. Little did we know, but even as we were drinking it at La Plage, the folks at Waters Crest had long sold out of this vintage, such was the appreciation the locals had for it.
The main dishes were where we embarked on our seafood voyage. There was a nice selection of seasonal specials of the day, to round out an already attractive menu. Lindsay opted for the jumbo scallops with Parisienne gnocchi, wilted spinach and a black truffle maitake boullion. The scallops trully were jumbo, approaching the size of a hockey puck - though thankfully not at all like them in texture. They were in fact quite succulent, and perfectly caramelised. The gnocchi and spinach were very good, but the linking flavour of the truffle boullion was absent. I chose the pan roasted wild striped bass, with Sicilian cous cous, chorizo and clams. This was a very tasty dish, but oddly almost like two separate dishes co-incidently sharing a plate. The bass was beautifully cooked, crisply roasted skin-side, and a perfect temperature. The accompanying sauce, cous-cous, chorizo and clams were very much of a boullabaise style, rich and hearty. Both sets of flavours were tasty, but it was a little incongruous that the bass hadn’t been linked more closely to the other ingredients.
Dessert is always tricky after seafood. Anything too sweet, and the flavours clash. Anything too heavy, and the seafood gets smothered in that heavy pudding feeling. There was a good selection, and Lindsay chose the chocolate banana “bread” with cinnamon ice-cream. This description of “bread”, we’ve learned, is American idiom for what would normally be known as chocolate fondant, with a still-liquid centre. It tasted wonderfully of chocolate, but alas, was another dish which missed its full potential, with no hint of banana. I lucked out, and chose the espresso chocolate mousse with creme fresh and strawberries. It was perfect. A rich, dark mousse that didn’t overdo the coffee flavour, served in perfect proportions with the light cream, and tart, perfectly-ripe strawberries. Yum!
La Plage Restaurant
131 Creek Rd
Wading River,
Long Island NY 11792
USA
Ph: +1 631 744 9200