Cerulean Revisited

We had dinner at Cerulean tonight.  It’s been a long hard spring that shows no sign of ending as we head towards July.  We planted a bunch of trees today in standing water, mud, and relentless humidity.  It seemed like a good day to let someone cook and clean and serve us.

We picked Cerulean mostly because it’s such a nice space. The decor is au courant, the servers quiet and professional, the food exceptional.

Tonight it was all that and more.

We ordered wines by the glass and small plates so we could sample lots of different things.  The small plates were:

• Maple Leaf Duck Breast with blueberry-green peppercorn chutney.  OMG.  If you’ve ever cooked duck at home you know what a terrible mess it makes and how hard it is to get it right.  This was cooked to absolute simple perfection.  And we didn’t have to clean the stove.
• Crispy Potatoes with pancetta, manchego,  and roasted garlic-dill sauce.  Think oven roasted potatoes as they would serve in heaven and you won’t be far off.
• Grilled Asparagus with pancetta, manchego cheese, and garlic oil.  You may be thinking, “that sounds like the potatoes.”  But the grilled asparagus is a crispy, caramelized, buttery vegetable delight.
• Sauteed Shrimp with artichoke tapenade, cherry tomato and basil cream.  Artichoke tapenade?   Yep, just what it sounds like.  Artichoke leaves with chopped olives.  Sounds odd, but it was so tasty.
• Ceviche Sea Scallops with arugula, chive oil, parmigiano reggiano and  smoked sea salt.  “Do you know what ceviche is?” asked our server Chris.  Yes I do, and after eating this you wonder why you’d ever cook a scallop with heat.
• and the topper of them all, House Cured Pork Belly with mascarpone polenta and fried egg.

Ok.  If pork belly isn’t ridiculously rich and decadent, let’s top it with cheesy grits and an egg!  You’d think it would be too much, but it wasn’t.  A slice of pork belly, swiped through the polenta and egg, was deeply and fundamentally delicious.

Cerulean was, as always, busy.  There was a couple in the booth across from us, and the lady had been through, or was still going through, chemotherapy.

It was a moment that makes you think.  Despite a late and frustrating spring, despite weather that saps you everyday, despite a failing body, despite unemployment and oil spewing into the Gulf and pick your crisis of the day, you’re here today and life is sweet and short and when you get a chance to eat pork belly with cheesy grits and egg you’d be a fool to pass that up.