South Goa, India

At 7am on Christmas Day, Palolem Beach in south Goa was cool and silent; populated only by fishermen hauling their brightly-painted wooden fishing boats up the sand, stray dogs and cows. Slowly the sun broke through the high swaying leaves of the coconut palms and cast golden light over the sand. Then the beach gradually came alive. Dreadlocked backpackers emerged from their coconut leaf thatch huts to unroll yoga mats, beach bar owners set up umbrellas and sun loungers, and we found breakfast.

After having our flight delayed by four days due to snow in London, we had travelled through the night to get to the beach by Christmas Day and we were exhausted. So a glass of mixed fresh fruit juice and a banana pancake - typical backpacker fodder on beaches all over the tropics - set us up well for a soporific morning on sun loungers under the shade of the coconut palms.

Our week-long stay split between three beautiful south Goan beaches (Palolem, Agonda and Polem) gave us time to fully appreciate the delicious seafood-based cuisine. Displaying Portuguese influences following four centuries of colonial rule, it's complex and often fiery (the world-famous vindaloo is a Goan dish).

Polem beach is a pretty, palm-fringed crescent of sand in the far south of the state. It's undeveloped as yet, so should you choose to stay the night in one of the three palm-thatch huts on offer, your only company will be the handful of staff who run the beach restaurant, their canine and bovine friends, and Chris from Manchester who can't drag himself away and has been there since October.

The beach restaurant doesn't look like much from the outside but the food is amazing. There is no menu and the food on offer reflects the day's catch. Sitting at a plastic table under the shade of a tarpaulin we feasted on crunchy deep-fried cauliflower florets and hot green chillies coated in a sweet, sticky sauce, and the fish curry was light and spicy. Earlier, while on my morning run on the beach, I saw a woman peeling prawns that had just come off the fishing boats. Sure enough, they were on offer at lunchtime and arrived at our table in two ways: fried in crunchy, light batter and served with a sweet, rich and spicy masala sauce; and in a coconutty curry sauce spiked with coriander.

Seafood barbecues on the beach are another of Goa's culinary treats. Our best one was at Agonda beach, where we sat at tables on the sand and tucked into a feast of calamari, snapper and gigantic prawns coated in spicy tandoori marinade and grilled to perfection over charcoal.

At the far north end of Palolem beach, away from the music and crowds, there is a little restaurant called Ordo Sensei. You have to cross a foot bridge over a stream to get there and it feels like another world as you lie back on cushions and watch the monkeys playing in the mango trees. Unlike all the other beach restaurants which proudly boast their "multicuisine" offerings of Indian food, Thai food, Continental food, Chinese food, Tibetan food, Israeli food and Goan food almost as an afterthought, this place has a simple menu of purely local dishes. My coconut milk and papaya curry was delicate and light with complex spices - simply delicious.