Rule #1 : Never eat out on Valentine's Day. It's a day when restaurants see mugs coming and do hopeless overpriced set menus. I can understand that because they have a demand for it and they are businesses, after all, but I choose not to take part in it. And there's an above-average chance of someone trying to sell you a rose. Or a Teddy Bear.
Rule #2 : Never go anywhere that doesn't take bookings. I have little enough time without spending it standing in a queue or waiting in a bar. Yes, I'm a grumpy old man.
But wait, I can explain ...
You see, we weren't out for Valentine's day lunch. We were out because poor Perigueuxse had a system implementation on Saturday, for which she spent half the day at work and then from home logging on to do IT voodoo at various times from 4pm through 2am at approximately 2 hour intervals. Saturday night dinner was quick and scrappy and I felt she deserved something better for her hard work.
So as far as eating out on Valentine's Day, we weren't. We were eating out as a reward for loyalty above and beyond, to her soulless multinational corporation.
And never go anywhere that doesn't take bookings? We were walking up Flinders Lane looking for Coda but missed the sign somehow, and came to Cumulus Inc. Expecting a polite rebuttal, we asked if they had a table for two (it was bang on 12n) and yes they did! It was only after we got home and we looked at their website to crosscheck details that I realised they don't take bookings (other than for parties of 7 - 12. 7?!?) We didn't have to wait at all and I kind of feel like I didn't break the rule on that account. We had considered Cumulus for my birthday dinner last year but dropped it in the first round because of the no booking policy. We went to Comme Kitchen but the noise from the bar was so hideously loud that we went to Coda instead. But that's another story.
Has anyone not been to Cumulus yet? The dining room is a large, acoustically unrestrained space with the bar at the street (Flinders Lane) side and the open kitchen on the side away from the street. Diners sit in between; lucky diners (if they are in small groups) sit at the bar that overlooks the kitchen and see the cooks at work. It was acceptably quiet when we were there for Sunday lunch, but I reckon on a Friday night with the bar full it would get pretty noisy.
Decoration is minimal with clear pale walls with a few sparse decorations and dark bars and furniture for contrast. No linen on the table, decent glassware which was changed every glass (which was poured at the table, kudos!), plate changes when called for, and my impression was that the staff were friendly, well trained and happy to explain the food for which they had a clear enthusiasm.
What did we have? There was just two of us so a mere six dishes seemed enough. If the colours seem funny it's because we're shooting with natural light and we're just not used to that, vampiric denizens of the foodblog scene that we are.
Chrispy school prawns with chili and garlic ($14). Prawns the size of your little finger were dunked in hot oil, tossed with chili and garlic and served in a cast iron sizzle platter with some fresh lemon. The waitstaff told us a couple of times that we could eat the whole things but we balked at the heads as they did have the sharpest bits. The flesh of the prawns was buttery and the shell was crunchy and prawny, and the odd bit of chili gave it a nice zing. If I was served this as a dish in a seafood bar or a pub in a seaside town I would be completely stoked. This is exactly what they should be doing instead of ordering bags of frozen crumbed seafood gobbets.
Using the leftover heads, we staged an ad-hoc reproduction of la Terreur using only prawns.
Take that, Prawnspierre!
Next dish was a smooth piece of parfait de foie gras with gentle toast ($17). It was rich, lush, creamy and embraced our tongues, but the P still has not had the real thing. We may need to go to America soon (before they ban it everywhere) or France. There were some marinated sultanas on the plate which neither added to nor detracted from the parfait.
Next was a boudin noir with smoked tomato and parsley salad ($12). The black pudding was profoundly good, crispy on the outside, soft, moist and grainy inside, filled throughout with a dark rich earthy flavour. The smoked tomato was a good accompaniment - the acid balanced out the richness of the boudin, although the smokiness of the tomato was lost in the flavour of the pudding.
Our next course was mussels with a jamon, parsly and saffron bourride, served with some crisply grilled sourdough ($17). The mussels (Victorian I think) were perfectly tender, the bourride (reduced I think from the traditional seafood soup to a rich thick coating sauce) was heavy with garlic, saffron, egg yolks and mussel juice, with flecks of jamon and parsley varying the flavour of each bite. We did some triage on the original bowl :
To get one a little more user friendly :
Next to last was a dish of saltwater duck with sour cherries ($16). We clarified that this was not in fact sea-ducks (if there are such a thing) brought to an untimely end, but rather what looked like legs and thighs of farmed ducks which had been rolled, brined and poached. A bit of a brave dish I thought, as not everyone will be prepared to go for a dish of duck that looks and tastes like undercooked ham. To us, however, it was moist, tangy with salt balanced by the sour cherries, soft, juicy and delicious.
Last of all was roast quail with turnips, purslane, pomegranate and I think a yoghurt dressing ($18). The quail was cooked just to pink while crispy outside, the turnip (which I don't think I've ever cooked with) was moist and provided a pallet for the other ingredients to work on. The spicing and saucing worked wll on the dish.
We were too full for dessert and had to skip the apparently legendary madeleines that are made to order.
As usual when dining with two we don't look too closely at the wine list as wine by the glass will suit our needs best. Frankland Estate (WA) Riesling ($11/150ml) went well with about everything.
I think I've already said service was good, but let me say it again. Cumulus Inc is putting out really refined versions of French, Spanish and Mediterranean bistro or bar food dishes with splendid composition and rock steady execution (well,one of the bits of sourdough with the mussels was a little over-charred. But that's the worst I can say). They are putting some more modern technique and presentation on the bistro dishes of a few years ago, and they are the better for it.
One last note- this is the first time we've eaten here but I went back and looked at some blogs from mid- and late- last year. It's clear that the menu has changed regularly between then as rich baked dishes and pastas from last winter have been replaced by light seafood and grills. Yet another bonus point!
I look forward to going back to Cumulus Inc, but it'll have to be Sunday lunch or another quiet time.
Because I hate to wait in line.
Cheers,
Ecumer.
ps nobody tried to sell us a rose or a Teddy Bear. I would like to think that a band of dedicated Cumulus staff were crash-tackling anyone who tried to cross the threshold with such things. If so, thanks, Chaps!
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