Chef's Gallery- Appetizers

There's so much I want to post about, but laziness always kicks in before I get around to writing the post. Was actually reading an article online about a Singaporean food blogger who apparently went into a restaurant and, after eating, had a bad attitude towards paying and expected the meal to be free because he was a food blogger.

The media stirred it up big and everyone got really angry, calling food bloggers modern day beggars with a DSLR, but truth was, he was invited to a tasting session and brought 3 friends along. Because he was invited, he assumed it was going to be free, but it was only free for him and +1, not all his friends. He then tossed his credit card on the table grudgingly, and someone from the restaurant, displeased with his behavior, called some rival food bloggers and told them about it. They then wrote up scathing posts about him (chance to bring down a rival?) and it felt like they were kicking someone who was already down.

The world of food bloggers isn't so pleasant afterall. It's becoming more and more commercialized, which is really sad. Shall look at food and be comforted that no matter how terrible and low this world becomes, there will still be good food around, and that matters a lot.

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

Chef's Gallery and its menu.

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

Shall start with the interior, which is absolutely beautiful. Modern and innovative, it takes on the appearance of an open kitchen with sparkling clean and clear glass windows, displaying the chefs' skills at making dumplings and noodles.

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

The displays of ancient Chinese urns and pots enclosed in glass cases around the restaurant reflects a gallery- true to its name.

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

Table layout? Meticulously set up, with clean, unbroken porcelain dishes. That's actually really important- many restaurants previously visited have chipped bowls and cracks in their glasses. None at the Chef's Gallery- until I came along. (Being clumsy as always, I manage to crack my glass of water... =( at least it didn't shatter! Was passing a dish to someone across the table and the fork fell onto the glass...)

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

The waiters are very attentive and the first time I went with tt, the waiter was over enthusiastic- he kept popping his head close to our table and checking to see if everything was ok. That's great, but when it happens every 5 minutes, it gets rather weird. He did recommend some dishes that are the restaurant's specialty though, and they were pretty good recommendations, so 10/10 for service. They kept filling our water too, so that's always good.

From Week 31-33, 2010

This appetizer, from the previous post, is the pork belly roll- thinly sliced blanched pork belly rolled with carrot, cucumber, topped with a garlic and oil free vinaigrette dressing. Loved the topping, which went really well with the otherwise bland veggie and pork belly roll.

From Week 31-33, 2010

This was their pan fried dumpling. It's not the best- rather than this one, I'd get...

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

... this one instead! It was so good, I was completely surprised by it. Usually, in previous visits to Shanghainese restaurants, they'd serve this and it'd be nice and soupy inside, but it'd cause the bread to be soggy. This one? The fluffy texture of the bread is maintained with the soup and the juicy meat inside. I don't know how they did it, but it's so good!

From Week 31-33, 2010

Another appetizer. One thing to note is that they seem to love serving this and calling it by other names. As an appetizer, it's called the golden snowflake chicken, which is a lightly crumbed chicken fillet, very crispy, tender and moist according to the description. I won't dispute that, it's good. However, you get the same thing if you order the crispy chicken and fried rice (you get a plate of fried rice and a plate of this), and if you order the crispy chicken with pumpkin soup noodle (a bowl of pumpkin soup noodle and a plate of this). Of course, it'd be more worth it to try this with either the rice or noodle, rather than by itself.

From Chef's Gallery- Banka's birthday

Standard steamed dumpling. Looks good, but I didn't get to try this one.

This concludes appetizers =P