First Night's Dinner on Celebrity Apex

A great dinner on the first night of the cruise. Had a few starters. First was sea scallops on some parsnip puree.

The scallops were cooked a perfect medium rare and seasoned simply with a little salt. And the creamy, slightly spicy parsnip puree was a perfect contrast to the sweet scallops. 

Next was a shrimp cocktail. Four medium shrimp with a decently spiced cocktail sauce.  

Also tried the Asian consomme. The broth had lots of chicken flavor and several mushrooms. I would have liked a bit more spice. I had ordered this before on Celebrity Summit and it was closer to a hot and sour soup. 

Also tried the tuna carpaccio. Super thin sliced tuna served with a nice portion of seaweed salad, mushrooms and carrots. A unique plating of this dish that really worked.  

And then the curried Waldorf salad. Such a great twist on the usual Waldorf. The curried chicken married perfectly with the grapes, apples, walnuts and greens.  

Then the main courses. My experience neigh ordering some proteins in the main dining room of a cruise ship has not been stellar. Steaks are often not the greatest quality or cooked to the temperature you prefer. Other cuts of meat suffer the same fate. I rolled the dice a but and tried the veal chop. And what a wonderful dish it was.  

This was a steakhouse quality dish. Cooked a perfect medium (yes - you can cook so it still has some pink) and simply seasoned with salt and pepper. Served on a plate of slightly smoky polenta with roasted peppers and Al dente asparagus. Such a succulent piece of veal and great side dishes. I almost couldn't finish it. But it was just too good. 

The other main was the roasted trout. Such a well cooked piece of fish served with some roasted cauliflower, pureed cauliflower and topped with raisins and currants. As good as the veal chop was, this was the dish of the night. The chefs really thought though flavors and presentation. 

Dessert was the restaurant's signature carrot cake and also the chocolate cake.

The carrot cake had thin layers of cake with delicious cream cheese icing between them. The chocolate cake was moist layers of cake with caramel filling. The caramel had a slight coconut flavor so the composed dessert reminded me of a Samoa cookie from the Girl Scouts.