I heard it on the radio yesterday, but the person didn’t know anything about the restaurant except where it was located. I was so excited I wanted to get right on the computer with the news flash, but I was too busy working!

Then when I got home, I barely had time to feed the kids and water a few plants before it was time to get ready for wine club at the Galleon. We hadn’t been to a wine tasting there in a few months, so it was imperative that we get there to sample some nectar of the gods. And Frank’s food pairings, too. Doubly exciting is that Frank Pugliese (original owner with his wife, Katherine, of Restaurant Bacchus) is now head chef at the Galleon! It was great. Our first wine was Duck Pond Pinot Grigio and it was paired with information from Roger Dewey of the St. Croix Foundation about the St. Croix Food and Wine Experience coming up next month. The wine was nice and light and I enjoyed it. The info was  interesting as well, and we are in the process of figuring out what events we can afford to attend during the April extravaganza.

Next Pinot Grigio was Willamette Valley Vineyards. I liked it better, especially since it was paired with food, a sort of chicken salad. Third wine was Duck Pond Pinot Noir. Not very Pinot Noir-like, in my opinion. I wasn’t thrilled with the bouquet, which reminded me of dirty socks. It was paired with a tenderloin on toast with horseradishes, and that made it taste better. Fourth wine was Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir. Much more like a Pinot Noir and lovely, especially with the tasty Mexican-type morsel it was paired with.

We had fun talking with some of our favorite fellow islanders, but it got crowded and noisy, so we  headed to town to check out the new place.

There is no sign yet to let you know it’s there, but we drove by, saw lights on inside and a few occupied tables, and found a decent parking space on the next block.

Galangal is beautiful! Very nicely done in white, black and gold, with Buddhist statues and artwork. The menu is nice, as is the wine list. We stuck with a Pinot Noir (I’ll think of which one soon), and loved it. We had a green papaya salad and the calamari appetizer with an incredibly flavorful dipping sauce. The salad was small, but refreshingly tangy, and available with or without shrimp. We had it without. We shared an entree of tilapia in coconut milk. It was fabulous and came wrapped in a banana leaf! Mmmmm.

Gregory and Arthur both came to talk to us at various points, and Arthur brought us out a wonderful house -made hot sauce to enhance the tilapia. Michael abstained, but I LOVED it.

We shared a dessert of rich chocolate cake and mango ice cream. Incredible!

Galangal is definitely a wonderful addition to St. Croix’s already amazing restaurant scene. We are thrilled to have Gregory and Arthur back, and we know they will be very successful in their new venture.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 11:54 am and is filed under Island Buzz, Reviews, St. Croix, Terry Talk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.