review: cha fahn

cha fahn / 763 centre street, jamaica plain / 617-983-3575 / summer hours tues-sun 5pm- / $25 prix fixe on wednesdays / entrees 12-20

small plates
shrimp summer rolls with peanut dipping sauce
pan-fried spicy pork and kimchi dumplings
jasmine tea wilted kale with pine nuts and lemon soy dressing
asparagus, shrimp, and cilantro pesto on seaweed papers

main
szechuan noodles: chilled noodles in a spicy szechuan peanut sauce with fried tofu and crispy lotus roots
beef noodle soup: taiwanese style noodle soup with tender beef slices and spinach
tea-bathed chicken: sauteed chicken breast with a citrus and smoky tea-infused sauce, braised carrots, baby spinach, and pilaf
satay tofu: tofu cutlets with a bracing blend of peanuts, coriander, ginger, and soy sauce, braised carrots, baby bok choy, and pilaf
miso salmon: roasted sake-miso marinated salmon, asparagus, scarlot tea pickled ginger, and pilaf
skirt steak: seared skirt steak with a spicy korean sauce, crispy lotus roots, asian pear, daikon radish, wilted watercress salad and potatoes
garlic-lime shrimp: sauteed shrimp with garlic, ginger, and a soy-lime sauce, sauteed spinahc with golden raisins and pine nuts, and pilaf

for after
orange rooibos creme brulee with candied orange peels, and shredded chocolate
green tea mochi ice cream
seared banana with lychee sorbet
ginger spice tea cake, candied ginger, and wine-reduction berry sauce

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above is the menu for when we went to cha fahn (yesterday). while a bit of the food is slightly overwrought, there is a huge upside to this place: a lot of great food, a lot of fantastic teas, a quiet atmosphere, and excellent interior design. we went to take advantage of the $25 prix fixe menu, which is above; there are also extensive sake and tea menus. between the four of us, we had most of the food dishes; three of us had tea, mine being a lapsang souchong.

part of the allure of this place is the focus on tea - for tea enthusiasts, who know that tea has as much nuance as wine, this is the only place that acknowledges and exploits the relationship between tea and food. chinese restaurants serve tea with every meal, but little thought goes into how the tea might affect the food, and vice versa. if this idea piques your interest, as it did mine, you will be happy at cha fahn.

i am not a tea expert, and thus can't tell you about the nuances of the tea that we had. however, i did love my tea very much - it smelled like a wood-burning fire, and tasted like a plant's impression of smoke. the food itself was excellent; i had the dumplings, the chicken, and the creme brulee. the dumplings were just barely spicy, at a level that could have been a little higher, but was entirely sufficient to capture the taste of kimchi (another nuanced food product that i cannot expound upon). what wasn't fabulous about the dumplings was that they were a little too salty, and i think a bit more ginger would have balanced them better; what was utterly fabulous about them was the way in which they were cooked - the combination of the cooking method and the texture of the dumpling skin rendered the dumpling bottoms delectably crispy, but not chewy. in this case, the fact that the dumpling skins were on the thin side (not as thin as wonton skins, thinner than dumpling skins) was essential.

i tasted miriam's summer rolls, which were quite good for summer rolls, and better than the ones you get at the typical thai restaurant. these summer rolls were a bit crispier, a bit crunchier, and it was apparent that the chefs were paying more attention to how cooked the shrimp were than at xinh xinh last week.

the entrees were excellent across the board. i think i would have preferred chicken with the bone in, rather than the breast, but the sauce was really citrus-y in a restrained way - i sometimes think of chinese food as a punch in the face, flavor-wise, but this sauce was definitely more carefully planned, along the lines of a japanese tea ceremony. the carrots were perfectly cooked (as someone who doesn't like raw carrots, this matters a lot to me and i always notice how well or poorly the carrots are cooked). the pilaf was also excellent - it had citrus and some unidentifiable spice in it.

in fact, my entree was probably the weakest. miriam's ginger-lime shrimp were fantastic - the ginger and garlic hit you first, then you got a little bit of cilantro, all complementing the flavor of the shrimp. on its own, the ginger-garlic-lime-soy sauce was overly salty, but paired with the shrimp it was everything you could ever ask of shrimp. the shrimp were also deftly cooked - still sweet and juicy. carrie's miso salmon rated a bit higher in my opinion - the miso paired perfectly with the salmon so that it balanced the salmon and brought out the flavor of the salmon, with hints of miso here and there. i would say, though, that josh's skirt steak was the best - absolutely perfectly cooked to order (rare, because there isn't any other way you should be eating your steak), tender, not stringy, flavorful....i don't know where cha fahn is getting their meat, but somebody should ask.

as i said before, the upside of this place is pretty great. and as the meal went on, it got better - average appetizers, excellent entrees, and really fantastic desserts. i love dessert, and i will always eat dessert because i like the idea of dessert. thus i am less affected by how much i like the dessert, despite my high standards. we had the ginger cake and the creme brulee, and while i felt that the ginger cake was probably just above average as a dessert, the creme brulee really hit it out of the park. i'm pretty sure it would be on my top ten list, along with desserts from chez panisse, alinea, aujourd'hui, and various other hoity-toity places. this is, without a doubt, the best creme brulee i have ever had. the texture was nothing short of amazing - silky, creamy, thick. the flavor was well balanced - not too much citrus, not too much tea, and not too sweet - and the bruleed top gave your tastebuds the occasional crunchy burst of orange-y, burnt sugary flavor. if i had a faster metabolism, i'd be eating this every day for breakfast. and it went perfectly with my smoky tea, although i'm not sure if the strong smokiness of the tea destroyed any of my tastebuds' ability to taste the entire range of flavors.

a note on the atmosphere and decor - the tables are carved chinese tables, with really comfortable red cushioned chairs in the middle of the restaurant, and super-high-backed chinese chairs at the tables along the walls. the lighting is ideal - that sort of glowy, softly warm, somehow bright light. and the bathroom is pretty awesome: black tile up to your shoulder, then a wide swathe of black-painted wall, then a wide swathe of white-painted wall to make the space seem taller. this is a place that is aptly called a tea room - it gives you the sense that you can linger over your food and your tea at a slower pace than the rest of your day.