To provide our bellies a comforting and warming preclude to the bountiful feast ahead, we each ordered our choice of soup.   I had  the Truffle Mushroom, a rich cream-based soup with bits of earthy fresh mushrooms dappled with the precise amount of aromatic truffle oil.  It was initially a bit salty upon first serving so I had to have it adjusted.

I've been urging my family to try Gallery By Chelle for years — way before it earned its One Michellin Star  recognition!  So, this was one dining affair I've been lookign forward to have.  

   

Gallery by Chelle is the first restaurant in the Philippines to be awarded the Michellin Green Star recgonition for its outstanding commitment to sustainable gastronomy, local sourcing, and zero-waste culinary practices.  One of the contributing factors to this achievement is its urban herb garden where its signature bite of Scallop Tart was served.   The Scallop Tart was made from crispy lumpia wrapper and filled with scallops and fresh mango.  It was laid on a fresreshing foam of home-grown herbs and mustard leaves.   The Scallop Tart's complexity and depth of flavor left a profound and lasting impression, affirming its place as a signature bite that stood the test of several tasting menu iterations.

The Chili Lobster Puff is a taro puff filled with umami-rich lobster and homemade chili sauce.

As a teaser of the Heirloom Rice Journey,  we were served a trio of traditional Filipino rice cakes with their creative twist.

The Sapin-sapin has layers of latik foam, ube, langka, and coconut nestled within a queso de bola tuile.  

The Tupig is a charcoal-cooked rice cake topped with peanut sauce and complemented by toasted rice crumble.  It was eaten by sliding it off the banana leaf which I enjoyed as it reminded me of another popular Philippine sweet snack, the polvoron.

Our favorites from the bites where the two signatures.

The Kare-Kare Bonbon is the most savory bonbon we've come across.  We instantly felt fulfilled once we popped this concentrated piece unto our mouth.

When you're expecting to bite into a cherry tomato for the splash of of tomato juice and you get flooded with the wholesome Tomato Sinigang flavor of sour kamias, succulent pork and sweet vegetables.

Because most Chinese dishes frequently use abalone as a main ingredient, we taught that we already knew all sides and flavor profiles of the abalone.  This meal has surprised us with the rich and bold flavor of abalone when laid over Chelle's unique take on arroz caldo — rice porridge which made use of the firmer Unoy red heirloom rice variety from Pasil, Kalinga) inflected with Kiniing (salt-cured porked hanged over traditional Cordinalleran firewood stove pork for days) .

We had to google the term Mucilage which actually refers to the sticky pulp of a plant.  In this case, the dessert is named Cacao Mucilage because the sandwich filling between the crisp chocolate meringue is a semi-sweet sorbet made entire from raw cacao juice pulp layered with a rich chocolate ganache.