Sauce was soy sauce, chili crisp, sesame oil, green onions and garlic.
I’m very early in my trying to make things look nice on a plate journey. But the few things that stick out immediately to me is the rough edges of the sauce at the bottom if it was a solid edge I think it would look nicer. The carrot and green onion in the middle feels a little bit arbitrary, and I think I could use smaller and more uniform cuts especially on the carrots.
by AccomplishedMud1218
4 Comments
It’s a solid start, a few things that jump out. The carrots and onion aren’t arbitrary, but there is probably a tad too much. You could probably get more emphasis from half as much garnish. Uniformity on those onion cuts could be better, you have the bigger chunk on the outside of the plate with the smaller cuts on top. It would look better if all the green onions had the same consistency.
One change I would consider for your next iteration, pan fry the bottom of those babies. The crunchy, golden bottom is the big selling point for those dumplings! You could messing with the dumpling placement as well, I would do a stoplight with the garnish breaking the line diagonally.
Hey,
I too am very early in my plating adventure. You’ve done a nice job that you should be proud of. If I was eating at your home and this was served to me, I would be very happy.
But, one thing you and I should both note: there is always room for improvement. We’re not professionals (yet, anyway) and we cannot expect to produce Michelin star level plating without substantial practice and lots of experience.
Now, with that out of the way; I see a nice dish. I like that you used an odd number of dumplings because our eyes seem to accept odd numbers better than even. An odd number gives you a chance to have a center item then two flanking it. Personally, I like that.
The dish is fairly drab though. It seems the green items could be greener and the carrots seem arbitrary. Not sure raw carrots are such a good option here. Considering blanching them for brighter orange and I would do the same with the scallions. This preserves the color and could even improve the texture (as is the case for the carrots).
Consider disrupting the sauce with chili oil. This would give it a more patterned design and keep it from adding to the “drab”.
2:00 and 7:00-8:00 are problematic areas for the sauce. You can see uneven edges that distracts your eyes. Clean these up by placing the sauce in the middle of the plate and tilting the plate 360° to get a clean edge all the way around.
Consider searing the dumpings after steaming to add color and a flavor depth.
Consider adding a green garnish on top, such as Thai basil. This way you are adding color, texture, and flavor.
Overall, good! I bet it tasted great and was enjoyed. But like I said, there is always room to improve. Good luck!
Crimp those dumplings next time
it’s solid. If you could crank out plates that look that good consistently from a restaurant there would be no complaints.