In the Eye of Tea
After a 5-course afternoon tea, the three of us felt our stomachs’ calling. The wind blew chilly moisture from the sea. A hearty dinner of noodle in hot broth would hit the spot, one that was saturated with oolong. Quite appropriately, we walked into O Chamé, meaning “eye of tea”(*) literally and “playful little one” colloquially. It’s Mother’s Day, no reservation, we couldn’t be any luckier that the guy found us three seats at the end of the bar.
Of course, who would skip the appetizers. And of course, we couldn’t decide on just one appetizer, so we ordered three. The potato and snow crab croquette ($8.50), buttery but mild, tastes ten times better after a dip in the plumier-than-usual-and-not-too-sour tonkatsu sauce. Usually I don’t dip my stuff, but the sauce is a must here.
The grilled, caramelized eel ($10.50), Kristen’s choice, is great. Little Mom loves eel, and she would love this. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! 🙂 A bite into the crisp endive releases a burst of sharp, almost minty air to balance the eel’s fatty sweetness.
Another fatty, sweet thing is the braised pork ribs with ginger and lemon ($8.50), so sweet I could detect neither ginger nor lemon. The leaner pieces looked soft but not too thrilling. One must go for the pieces with lotsa fat and semi-charred ends, those are gold.
Then came the reason we decided on O Chamé: the noodle soups. The broth is light yet hearty. Actually, I’m still in tea mode so I can only think of the word “full-bodied” to describe it. Tender pork as the base, smooth spinach for texture, and thin strips of takuan (pickled daikon) to freshen it up. Both Tiana and Kristen settled on this pork shoulder udon ($14.50). My normal self would, too.
But I chose the tofu udon instead. Lately I’ve decided that I should gauge a restaurant based on their vegetarian/vegan numbers because it’s hard to make vegan stuff taste good (unless it’s a dessert). This shiitake-spinach-aburage (fried tofu skin) udon (13.50) passes the bar, but it would be nice had it been entirely vegan. The broth is a fish stock flavored by the earthy sweetness of mushroom. I prefer the vegan udon at Anzu, whose broth has the more refreshing note of chrysanthemum greens.
Our face bathed in the steam, our stomach getting packed. It was hot. We were dead full half way through the bowl. I did my best picking up all of my spinach and mushroom, but shamefully left half the broth and a third of the noodle. We thought we couldn’t eat anymore, but then we flipped the page and stared at the desserts, then looked among ourselves and grinned: “I don’t think we’re ever too full for ice cream”. 😀 Just one dessert is not gonna hurt. The agony was when we narrowed our choices to four (from nine): sherry custard, poached pear with berries, truffle torte, and what we ended up getting following the waitress’s suggestion: two scoops of caramel balsamic gelato ($5).
The first spoon was, well, interesting. But it grows on you. It has a bite to it. Kinda feisty, or in Kristen’s words, “like yogurt”, which makes sense because both balsamic vinegar and yogurt are products of fermentation, works of microbes, and sour. Definitely worth squeezing in at the last minute.
Address: O Chamé
1830 4th Street
Berkeley, CA 94710
(510) 841-8783
Dinner for three + tax: $81.56
(*) At first I pronounced it |oh-shah-mei|, like a French thing, you know. But seeing its meaning, I guess it must be |oh-jah-mei|, like “cha” (tea) in sencha.
certainly like your web site but you need to test the spelling on several of your posts. Several of them are rife with spelling problems and I in finding it very bothersome to inform the reality however I’ll certainly come back again.
1This is really interesting, You are an excessively skilled blogger. I have joined your rss feed and look ahead to seeking extra of your wonderful post. Also, I have shared your website in my social networks!
2Some really interesting information, well written and broadly speaking user pleasant.
3I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is needed to get set up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I’m not very internet savvy so I’m not 100 certain. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Kudos
4This really answered my problem, thank you!
5I conceive this website holds very wonderful pent content posts.
6Respect to op, some fantastic entropy.
7Do you mind if I quote a few of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage? My blog is in the very same area of interest as yours and my visitors would really benefit from some of the information you present here. Please let me know if this okay with you. Regards!
8When I initially commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get three e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Many thanks!
9You made some clear points there. I did a search on the issue and found most guys will consent with your blog.
10Thank you for sharing with us, I think this website truly stands out :D.
11Hi, i think that i saw you visited my weblog so i came to “return the favor”.I am attempting to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use some of your ideas!!
12Hmm is anyone else experiencing problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I’m trying to find out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
13The subsequent time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I imply, I do know it was my option to learn, but I truly thought youd have one thing attention-grabbing to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you may repair when you werent too busy on the lookout for attention.
14Hi , I do believe this is an excellent blog. I stumbled upon it on Yahoo , i will come back once again. Money and freedom is the best way to change, may you be rich and help other people.
15This web site is mostly a stroll-by way of for all of the data you wanted about this and didn’t know who to ask. Glimpse here, and also you’ll undoubtedly uncover it.
16Great post. I am facing a couple of these problems.
17제주에서 가라오케를 알아볼 때는 위치와 이용 구성을 함께 확인하면 좋습니다. 제주가라오케 안내에 방문 전에 확인할 항목들이 정리돼 있습니다.
18예약할 때 날짜와 인원, 도착 시간을 미리 정리해서 전달하면 조건을 확인하기 편합니다. 제주 가라오케 예약 전 체크사항도 함께 참고해 보세요.
19