My visit to Cumulus Inc this year was short and sweet, and luckily, I’ve posted about this place before for reference, because there’s one dish that made such an impact the first time I visited, that I keep coming back. This time’s no different – the fish here is fantastic. This will mainly be just a quick post of food that I ate this time since my opinion on this place hasn’t changed.
A tiny little beef tartare on a thin crunchy toast thing. Delicious!
While I usually take the oyster option, today’s special was too good to pass up. These were Cloudy Bay clams, lightly steamed and dressed with sea urchin emulsion. They were really pricey at $12 per clam, but totally worth it – the clams were huge and it was a great change from oysters! A rare find that was absolutely delicious!
While this was not super interesting, it was their special – Meatsmith Christmas ham, so I took it. Since I’m writing this after my holiday, I can say that while it was nice, it wasn’t as tasty as the Fat Pig Farm ham that I bought during my trip to Tasmania. But now I know!
FISH SPECIAL!!! WHOLE FLOUNDER IN HERB BUTTER!! WITH SALTBUSH!
Woah. I still have a very strong memory of being very impressed with the flathead special the very first time I visited this place, so I keep ordering the fish here. It’s actually a whole flounder! The only reason why I say that is because at Embla, the “whole” flounder came headless…. The herb butter wasn’t as good as whatever garnish the flathead had ages ago, but it was still nice, and I love saltbush.
I was really full at this point – I took a friend (but he was technically still on a strict diet so wasn’t going to eat much) to this place and ordered enough food for 1.5 people, but I ended up eating about 1.3 people’s worth… I made him eat some of the flounder though. I was also trying to do the skillful thing of taking the top half off, and then removing the bone in one piece. What I didn’t expect, was a belly full of roe! Wow, lucky lady, both she and I! Though mainly me, because I got to enjoy it. My friend was all like, “just flip it upside down” but of course, for the show of finesse, and Asian tradition says that filleting then removing the bone whole is the only way to do it. Even the waitress complimented me afterwards!
While I knew that adult flounder have both eyes on the top of their head, their cheeks are still on the sides, so top and bottom. My friend thought I was eating the eyeball! No, I don’t like eyeballs unless Mr. Niland does them.
So even though I was full… there’s always room for dessert. This super light green apple sorbet with sheep’s milk yoghurt and meringue totally hit the spot. It was light enough that I didn’t feel like I was stuffing myself further.
I always love coming to Cumulus Inc, it really is my favourite all rounder restaurant. I love it so much.