Ochacha: eat your greens!

OChaCha: eat your greens!

and finally as promised.. here is the low down on my recent trip to Ochacha with the gang brought together by ladyironchef! thanks a million once again Brad for organising everything. It was swell! and thank you Evan for the wonderful photos! Be prepared for a green invasion!




I had met Vicki (my new found young friend i made during the baking competition over at house; darn! makes me feel so damm old!) earlier in the evening where we then took a stroll down from my workplace to raffles city shopping centre where the dinner event were to be held. After a considerable amount of walking and plenty of talk mostly regarding food and baking; that makes us so typically singaporeans. we had worked up an almost sizeable appetite and even more of a thirst and crave for something to ease the throat. Soon after, we settled down in the cafe together with Evangeline with whom which I then introduced to Vicki. Soon everyone was friends! haha.

Unfortunately many of the other participants were not as early as the few who had arrived earlier and the scheduled dinner at 7 30pm was pushed back to 8pm. By that time, i was to be honest.. VERY VERY thirsty. and obviously the complimentary potato chips weren't going to help... *argh*

the menu for the night:


Drinks: Matcha Rocks, Azuki Freezie, Ochacha Rocks, Ochacha latte or ochacha silk (3 cold and choice of 1 warm)

Soup: Shiitake Mushroom or tomato soup

Sandwiches: Sakura Egg, Wasabi Tuna, Furikake Salmon

Desserts: Matcha Cotton, Matcha Azuki, Financier, Matcha Panna Cotta

the night of feasting began with a round of shooters, NO, not lethal alcoholic ones of course but samplers of the drinks served up in the cafe.
top: Ochacha Rocks, essentially green tea with a choice of skim milk or whole milk

middle: Matcha rocks, on the rocks! yeh.. hard core stuff!

lowest: Azuki Freezie, matcha ice-blended with bits of azuki red beans strewened throughout the drink. MY FAV! its a real thirst quencher... pity the glass is soo puny...

after a incredibly slow round of drinks and an almost murderous amount of camera whoring (of the drinks of course) by the photographers all around. Apparently it came to my realisation that almost everybody present at the dinner had a dslr. dammit. oh well, so all i could do was to sit back and try to avoid blocking the lighting for the sake of my fellow diners who were more concerned about their photos then actually tasting the food. hehe. kidding. Still, i must comment that they (evan and Vicki) were a bunch of very harsh critics. *phew*. was feeling the heat for the newly opened cafe back there.

soup was served next. and my bad in ordering the tomato soup over the shitake mushroom soup. Took a little dribble from Evan's bowl and a-kinned it to the soup spoon version! darn again.. the tomato soup on the other hand was salty, sweet and everything in between. my ulcer was feeling the pinch again.

with some gently coaxing from the kitchen, the mains were served next. All of which are sandwiches of course but with a multitude of fillings. The first one set on the table was sakura egg sandwich, a rather fancy name for something so simple that i can re-create anytime at home. But what was simply delectable about the dish was the etherally soft bread; apparently it was shipped in from Japan; i have my doubts... wait till i get a hold on the bread distributors.. hehe. the next sandwich was the tuna wasabi which i skipped, hence the absence of any comments; and lastly the Furikake Salmon. That was divine! the spicy rice flakes compliemting the grilled salmon slices. eaten together with the dill cream cheese spread on the breads, everything just fell into a perfect place, all contributing to heightening each others flavor. i was sold.

from top: Sakura Egg, Wasabi Tuna, Furikake Salmon sandwiches

moving on, our desserts followed after a substantial break. We were served the sponge cotton, Matcha Azuki layered cake, matcha financier and the matcha panna cotta. All were relatively good with the panna cotta being the most impressive and most reasonable priced. It was much lighter in texture in comparison to a normal panna cotta. However my only grudge was that there was minimal matcha flavor present throughout the dessert. The matcha azkuki cake was alright, but would do better if its sponge layers were soaked in green tea syrup just to kick the flavor up a notch and provide additional moisture to the cake.

macha financier

Matcha Cotton

Matcha Azuki

Matcha Panna Cotta

The lady in charge Miss Lee Yin Siau was an extremely gracious host in the entire event and often took time to explain things to us, attending to our every needs. I had an extremely good time meeting up with my gfs as well as sampling all the green foods. in the end, i would probably consider coming down here again.. despite the harsh lightning and the white walls remind me of an asylum. argh. SAVE mE!!!

OChaCha

252 North Bridge Road

#B1-44F Raffles City Shopping Centre

Tel: 6333 5886