Friendly decadent catch up

I am cursing not bringing my camera with me last night to chronicle the dinner and dessert that suling and I shared last night to catch up and moan about our respective PhD woes.

Our plans were hastily cobbled together seeing as neither of us had any idea where to eat and thus didn't make any reservations. We decided to try our luck at Cumulus Inc. where we knew you couldn't book a table but worried about how long we'd have to wait given that we were hungry and it was bloody cold out - we didn't really want to have to exit and look for a new place. Luckily since it was still pretty early and it was only the two of us, we took a table at the bar and after a short perusal of the menu, got ordering and griping about our respective positions.

Sometimes, one eats a meal that changes their perspective. Sometimes, you'll eat something that makes you realise all the woes that assail you are fleeting and somethings are far more important. I had that last night. Maybe it was the wine speaking (just one glass of a French Chateau Riotor grenache) but during my meal last night, I could not help turning to suling and declaring, "You know what? Life is glorious!"

So what did we eat to inspire such ecstatic feeling within me? After much discussion, the two of us decided to order four dishes to share, abstaining from any charcuterie since we couldn't decide on whether we wanted proscuitto (suling) or foie gras (me, obviously). As our starter, we had the slow-cooked octopus with aioli, dehydrated olive, floating in olive oil. This was alright. Good, but not the highlight. I liked dipping the grainy sourdough bread into the oil. This was followed by a salad of shredded confit duck leg, roast & pickled beetroot, French breakfast radish and walnut. Suling said she generally doesn't order or eat salads at restaurant on principle, but agreed that this salad was pretty good. I still had to eat pretty much all the *green* bits though.

Since the salad had beetroot in it, our plates got pretty pink by the time we had finished. The waiter manning the bar noticed this and said, "You'll want to have clean plates for the seafood escabeche." He was so right. A concoction of red mullet, scallop, mussels, clams, carrot, dill, saffron, and olive oil (as far as I can remember), the two of us sat there and looked at the plate and then turned to each other and said "Oh my god. This is good." I would like to equate the feeling this imbued in me with the first time I felt foie gras melt in my mouth, the first time I ate truffles, the first time I realised how good wine could be. On continued eating, I upgraded the rating to GLORIOUS! The joy I had as the flavours seduced my senses was like an epiphany. I realised that while the wondrous feeling generated from the party in my mouth may be fleeting, so too my PhD related woes will pass. But I will be able to recreate or remember that moment of pleasure from the escabeche whereas I will only complete one PhD (if I remain sane and don't do one in arts). We also ordered extra bread so as to wipe up the saffron-flavoured oil. The couple sitting next to us followed suit.

To finish, we had the cassoulet - white beans braised with salt pork belly, smoked Lyonnaise sausage and roast pork strap. It too was pretty damn good but not as ground-breaking as the escabeche. Nonetheless the salty-sweet combination of the pork and beans was completely fulfilling and enjoyable. The big queue at the door made us decide to forgo the madeleines filled with lemon curd and we braved the cold winds to go sit in the Hyatt Bar for tea and dessert.

Here we shared a dessert tasting platter for two, which consisted of chocolate fondant, apple and rhubarb crumble, lemon tart, and cup of pistachio ice cream, lemon sorbet, and coffee ice cream. As I nestled in my comfy chair, cradling a cup of lemongrass tea within my hands, I repeated. Life is glorious.