Cha Ya received excellent reviews

[Guest guest]

http://www.sfbg.com/38/18/x_meatless.html

 

Meatless

By Miriam Wolf

 

Mad about you

 

GUESS WHAT HAPPENED since the last time I wrote this column? –They

finally found mad cow disease in a U.S. cow, and now everyone's a

vegetarian! I didn't know if you'd heard this or not because it's

been seriously underreported in the meat-centric press.

 

Well, maybe not everyone is a vegetarian yet. And while some

vegetarian activists, such as VegNews editor Joseph Connelly, believe

the crisis shouldn't be used as a tool to recruit meat eaters into

the vegetarian fold, I still think a timely reminder to your friend

eating the hamburger over there that " spongiform encephalopathy "

really means " spongy brain disease " is not out of line.

 

On the other hand, it looks like unless we all do become vegetarians,

it really won't matter. Prions (the infectious agents that transmit

bovine spongiform encephalopathy), it seems, cannot be destroyed in

hot soapy water, like bacteria. They can't be destroyed in the

microwave. Nor by the dishwasher, bleach, or even ultraviolet light.

 

In fact, short of nuclear holocaust, prions cannot be destroyed.

Which makes eating even a delightful dish of vegetarian chow fun

somewhat suspect if it's been cooked in the same wok that fried up an

order of beef with broccoli.

 

So although we vegetarians may look at mad cow disease and

think, " whew, dodged a bullet there, " the mess enormous factorylike

slaughterhouses and other big agriculture concerns have made of our

food supply is a problem for everyone.

 

But until big agribusiness is dismantled, we're lucky to have

restaurants like Cha-Ya, where the utensils haven't been keeping

company with meat. Cha-Ya, in Berkeley's Shattuck Avenue gourmet

ghetto, takes the clear, subtle flavors of Japanese cuisine and

translates them into vegan dishes.

 

The tiny restaurant can hold maybe 15 people max and is wildly

popular. We arrived one Sunday night about 20 minutes after the

restaurant opened and faced a waiting list that was already five

parties long.

 

What draws people to stand out in the cold for up to an hour is the

promise that everything on the extensive menu is delicious and vegan.

Sure, at many Japanese restaurants you can get a bowl of miso and a

kappa maki, but at Cha-Ya you can feast endlessly on sushi, noodles,

tempura, stews, and other Japanese dishes both homey and ethereal.

Japan has a history of vegetarian cuisine because of its Buddhist

tradition, and Cha-Ya capitalizes on that rich history.

 

Cha-Ya begins to surprise almost as soon as the meal begins. The

sunomono cucumber salad, a staple of many a Japanese menu, here

features a light rice vinaigrette and an accent of chewy, sweet

pieces of dried persimmon.

 

Cha-Ya's sushi is inventive and well made. The rice is fine-grained

and perfectly seasoned, and aside from the familiar kappa, avocado,

and oshinko rolls, Cha-Ya also offers sushi rolls with tempura inside

(and rolls that are tempura-ed themselves), sea vegetable rolls, and

even a packed-with-veggies roll in which the rice is replaced with

soba noodles.

 

The deep bowl of udon is full of noodles; the broth is flavorful

without being too salty – and it's reliably free of bonito. Veggie

tempura is light and grease free.

 

Among the more unusual offerings is " Moon Garden, " a bowl of soft

tofu " custard " artfully planted with bright vegetables: tiny

mushrooms, kabocha squash, snow peas, asparagus, and ginkgo nuts. The

subtle custard makes a great canvas for the flavors of the perfectly

cooked vegetables. This is the ultimate comfort food – light but

creamy and satisfying. It's perfect for a cold winter's night.

 

Even more rustically appealing is a bowl of taka-sui, gyoza in clay

pot. Bean-thread noodles, thin-skinned Japanese dumplings,

vegetables, and tofu are submerged in a delicious broth that tastes

earthy and vegetal. The ponzu-citrus sauce served alongside adds some

much appreciated bright notes to the dish.

 

Despite the roil of people waiting outside, dining at Cha-Ya is a

relaxing experience. Service is quick and friendly; the interior is

bright and inviting. Tables aren't even as close together as you

might expect in such a tiny space.

 

Vegetarian-friendly restaurants are great – we need all the friends

we can get. But dining at a 100 percent vegetarian or, even better,

vegan restaurant is so much more rewarding. Why settle for a tiny

corner of the menu when you can range over the whole thing without

worrying about hidden minefields of chicken stock or fish sauce? Best

of all is a restaurant like Cha-Ya, where the food is not just

regular Japanese dishes made meatless but also a creative and

delicious vegan cuisine all its own.

 

Cha-Ya. 1686 Shattuck (at Virginia), Berk. (510) 981-1213. Dinner,

Tues.-Sun., 5-9:30 p.m. Beer and wine. Takeout available. MasterCard,

Visa. Wheelchair accessible. E-mail Miriam Wolf at

miriam.

E-mail Miriam Wolf at miriam.