The Cultured Pearl Is Always Fresh and Always Fabulous
What a great way to start a new year of exploring the area's rich cuisine... a night at The Cultured Pearl (19 Wilmington Avenue, Rehoboth Beach). I have had many, many fabulous nights there over the past 5 years. It's always a dining experience full of adventure and great food, always leaving me looking forward to my next visit.
Although it may be the first thing to come to mind, The Cultured Pearl is so much more than sushi. It has a full menu of entrees that include beef, chicken, pork and seafood of many varieties, as well as great appetizers, soups and salads.
On this particular night, we began with soup, one a regular on the menu (Thai lemongrass) and the other a special of the day, cream of crab. The lemongrass was exquisite, billed as "extra spicy," which it was, and which we loved, taking a little bit of our breath away with every spoonful. It has a light lemony broth swimming with huge shrimp and straw mushrooms, and our mouths felt so alive! The crab soup was also delicious, rich, thick and buttery, with a drizzle of sherry on top and lots of huge chunks of lump crab that made it divine.
The salads were creative and fabulous and very generous in size, creative and fabulous. The house salad sounds simple, greens with fresh vegetables, but it's tossed in the most incredible ginger dressing (and I LOVE ginger!), so I could have eaten plates of this and been beyond happy. We also sampled the Mandarin salad, which is Boston and curly endive with a wonderful light citrusy orange soy vinaigrette. This was served with Shittake mushrooms, Mandarin orange segments, and cashews, and of course we added red curry lacquered duck breast on top, just because it sounded too delicious (and it was!), a juicy and generous portion of duck that added great flavor and depth to the salad.
We decided to order one entree and several selections from the sushi and handroll section of the menu. The Thai salmon, well, all I can say is "Oh, my God!" Start with a thick, fresh piece of salmon, pan sear it in a red curry cream, top it with Thai crab imperial with peanuts and fresh basil, and you have a meal to die for. Rich and flavorful, each forkful melted in our mouths and sent our taste buds into bliss. It's served with buttery sesame broccolini and wonderful jasmine rice, and is worth a trip into Rehoboth no matter where you live.
But it is the sushi and handrolls that are what keep me (and many others) coming back for more. Rule of thumb: throw caution to the wind and experiment, even if it sounds like something you never thought you'd put in your mouth. On recent visits I had eel, which I never thought I would like, but it's now one of my new favorites!
I think I've tried almost all of the rolls over the years, and have many that I have every time I dine here, but on this night we savored four. The dynamite roll features tuna and salmon wrapped in rice and topped with a spicy mayo and lightly broiled. You can also get this topped with lump crab, which just sends this over the top in rich decadence. The Spider roll is a huge mouthful, with softshell crab tempura, cucumber, avocado, flying fish egg and scallions, a crunchy, tasty delight. Rock 'n Roll has rockfish topped with crab imperial, which is also lightly broiled, a new favorite which is just too rich and fresh to describe. You'll want to order another round of it, so just get two orders to begin with. I had not tried the Telluride roll before, so we sampled that, which was also added to my "eat this every time you come here" list, cucumber and flying fish egg colorfully draped with eel and avocado, which was a fantastic blend of textures and flavors. (On another recent visit I tried and loved the Mexican roll, with tuna, spicy mayo and crunchy tempura bits.) On the sushi side of things, we had incredible fresh scallops that were sliced very thin and layered with sliced limes. The lime itself was hollowed out, with a lime handle left intact, then the scallop/limes were rolled and inserted back into the lime. Very fun, and VERY good, as was the tuna sushi. All were served on a gorgeous red lacquered tray, offering a great presentation.
Dessert? Of course! We tried the fried fruit wontons, stuffed with chocolate and fruit and served with candied nuts (yum!), as well as a perfect ginger creme brulee, which had a real kick of ginger in it as well as a large candied slice of ginger, very spicy, and very good.
The wait staff here is very seasoned and personable, and can help direct your decisions and answer all your questions about the food. Our waiter, John, who is an institution himself here, helped us make our choices, as everything sounds so wonderful. Not feeling adventurous? Stick with the fabulous entrees, soups and salads. Otherwise, this is a place to let loose and find some new treasures.
Always fresh, always fabulous, The Cultured Pearl can always be counted on for a remarkable and memorable dining experience. Plan a visit soon!
The Cultured Pearl, 19 Wilmington Avenue in Rehoboth, is open for dinner Thursday through Sunday from 5:00 p.m. For reservations, call 302-227-8493.