The latest restaurant to open in Noumea is L’Assiette du Cagou. When I had a short stopover recently of course the first place I went was to try out this newest addition. Charming owner Mr Ricardo Napamoindou had a short blackboard menu available for lunch but it just sang New Caledonia.
With liberal offerings of banana and coconut, the dishes had a definite island feel. Fish and seafood reinforced the island paradise. From the three main courses, my choice of Curry de Poisson a laut de coco was moist and flavoursome, with the fish poached in coconut milk.
There were three choices for accompaniments and I chose the banana. New Caledonia specialties, manioc (cassava), taros and ignames (yams) were also on offer.
The light lunch was finished with the most delicious iced coffee dessert – Cafe Liegeois. It’s not like an iced coffee drink that we know, but with all the same components. It’s more of a dessert and less wet than a drink. The coffee ice cream was just moistened with espresso then topped with cream. Thinking about it, I could nearly fly back to Noumea right now just for seconds.
By the way, because Noumea has (what I feel is) an unfounded reputation for being expensive, I just thought I’d add that lunch here (like the dinner at Le Creperie Bretonne) was most reasonable – on current exchange rates about AU$25.
L’Assiette du Cagou
15, August Brun Street, Quartier Latin, Noumea
Nouvelle Caledonie (New Caledonia)
+687 27.45.85
