#navbar-iframe { display: none; }

« Home | El Jannah, Granville » | Chinese New Year Parade, Sydney » | Ocean Room, Sydney » | Mario mushroom cake and an R2D2 cake » | Maple walnut bread » | Prize giveaway #8: A $200 dinner voucher for two f... » | Prize giveaways #6 and #7: $50 home delivery vouch... » | Prize giveaway #5: A gift pack from SWEETNESS The ... » | Chinese New Year dinner » | Prize giveaway #4: Kei's Kitchen cooking class »

Friday, February 06, 2009

Ten Ren Cha for Tea, Chatswood


Lemon green tea with ai-yu gelatin $7.50
Green tea ice cream with red bean icee and qq $7.50
Lemon green tea with ai-yu gelatin $6.50

I'm hopeless when it comes to ordering from a menu. It's a serious undertaking that requires assessment, adventure and a little bit of intuition.

So when I first open the menu at Ten Ren Tea in Chatswod, I'm a little taken aback. There are over 200 different drinks listed. This is going to take me a while. A long while. I'm so glad I'm one of the first to arrive at our table.

Ten Ren Tea is a tea shop at the front, a cafe at the back. We miss out on the leafy and picturesque courtyard out the back which accommodates groups of four people or less only. Instead we're upstairs, at an impressive looking dining table with a folding screen on the side.

We've already eaten dinner, otherwise I would've been tempted by the dumpling with tea flavour (ten for $8.80) or the tea-flavoured sausage (2 for $4.80). I'm also intrigued by the brick toast ($3.80), a thick doorstop of Taiwanese-style sweet bread that comes with your choice of garlic, butter, peanut butter or strawberry jam. There are a few inevitable typos too. J can't help giggling at the green flavoured sponge cake ($4.50). "What exactly does green taste like?" he asks.

In the meantime, I'm still reading through the drinks list. Lipstick black tea? Aged oolong? Sweet potato green milk tea? There's a Tibetan black tea with butter ($7.50 per bowl) or the cha for workout ($6.50/$7.50) which sounds like a curdling combination of citrus, milk and egg yolk.


Crushed ice with peanut and milk $7.50

When my order does arrive, the others laugh when I cheer out loud. It's a huge mound of compressed shaved ice that's topped with a scoop of green tea macha ice cream and ringed with chewy tapioca pearls and crunchy peanuts. It's exactly what I was hoping for. I heave a sigh of relief.

The drinks arrive soon after. The lemon green teas are sweet and refreshing, with cooling cubes of ai yu jelly, made from the gel that surrounds the seeds of a fig variety commonly found in Taiwan.

The red bean icee doesn't have a very strong flavour of red bean although it pairs well with the macha ice cream.


Japanese macha ice cream $4.80

J's macha ice cream is presented in a shallow saucer that is a tad too small. The action shot above is J rescuing the scoop mid-shot befire it topples over onto the table.


Crushed ice with rose Oriental beauty tea $7.50

The G-man's Rose Oriental beauty tea crushed ice takes the longest, arriving ten minutes after ours. A brilliant scarlet colour, the icy tower is surrounded by a huddle of sweetened cooked lotus seeds, red dates, palm seeds and jelly. It's also drenched with a thick, almost gelatinous syrup that's intensely flavoured with rosewater. I find this overly sweet for my palate, particularly as there's no cleansing reprieve anywhere on the dish, although the G-man enjoys this wholeheartedly.



I've got my own tower to keep me busy. It's a little tricky digging my way into the ice without mass carnage but it's worth the effort. I love the contrast of textures and flavours in my dessert: the super cold and rough shards of ice against the smooth creamy macha ice cream; the soft and glistening chewy tapioca pearls alongside the crunchy roasted peanut halves. It's part drink, part dessert, part meal, all in one.

The confusion about why the tapioca pearls are called QQ, is cleared up by M and L. Apparently the phonetic sound for q is similar to the word for "chew" in Taiwanese, making "chew chew" an appropriate description for the tapioca pearls.

With the mercury tipped to soar this weekend, I'm predicting there'll be queue queues for QQs. Maybe green flavoured too.




View Larger Map
Ten Ren Cha For Tea on Urbanspoon

Ten Ren (Cha for Tea) Chatswood
389 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9884 7667

Open 7 days, 9am - 11pm

Also a City branch at
Ten Ren Tea Sydney
696 George Street, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9281 1887
9 comments - Add some comment love

posted by Helen (Grab Your Fork) on 2/06/2009 12:01:00 am


9 Comments:

  • At 2/06/2009 12:07 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    such yummy food!

    lucky I'm in Strathfield too; that place isn't too far away :)

     
  • At 2/06/2009 12:32 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hee hee queue queue for QQ -___- *hi 5* QQ is also a description of their texture mmmmm I shall be enjoying them soon ^^!

     
  • At 2/06/2009 1:22 am, Blogger Karen | Citrus and Candy said…

    Wow...now that's some pretty avant garde desserts! But what a perfect antidote to this heat! Makes me want to swim in it :)

     
  • At 2/06/2009 7:37 am, Blogger Simon said…

    Lol! How long did you end up spending on the menu selection? I've done the same thing too, whiling away time, trying to work out what will be the "best" selection or combination.

     
  • At 2/06/2009 2:49 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I really wanted to try the tea sausage and dumplings too but I was going out for lunch afterwards. The oriental beauty looks different from how it appears on the menu. I don't think they've quite got the presentation sorted-the too small bowl for the ice cream and the plates for the ice desserts aren't exactly practical. My dining companion's went all over the place as it was hot and she wasn't able to eat it fast enough.

    I'm definitely making some at home this coming weekend though! :P

     
  • At 2/06/2009 4:12 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I like the courtyard out the back. So unexpected! I found the savoury food to be disappointingly not like the pictures/descriptions...But the drinks - great!

     
  • At 2/06/2009 9:13 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    These look amazing although I agree that red bean icecream does not sound that great

     
  • At 2/06/2009 9:29 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    oooh i would have ordered the exact same thing as u did..... i love green tea icecream.. with pearls too!! bonus! hehe

    ps. i was at work today and theres an american couple who just arrived told them how sydney had great food and that they should check it all out at graburfork lol

     
  • At 2/06/2009 11:47 pm, Blogger Helen (Grab Your Fork) said…

    Hi 100musicalfootsteps - No place is too far away if you're hungry enough :)

    Hi FFichiban - Ahh thanks for the info. I didn't realise that. Happy qq'ing!

    Hi Karen - I think I will definitely be craving these this weekend! I do have an ice shaver. I should stock the freezer up with ice cubes!

    Hi Simon - I thnk I spent a good ten minutes reading and analysing it. I was definitely in need of a drink by the end of it!

    Hi Lorraine - It was a little awkward eating the ice tower on a huge plate. I'm just glad I didn't lose any of it! The photos and the descriptions and the final dishes do seem to contradict each other. And dessert before lunch is such a good idea! :)

    And yes, I think I might give my ice shaver a workout too!

    Hi Jax - Thanks for the warning. I think it's just the idea of a tea flavoured sausage altho' I'm sure the taste is very subtle!

    Hi Gourmet Chick - Oh red bean ice cream is fantastic :) We actually wanted more red bean flavour in the drink. It was a little muted.

    Hi Kay - It was the perfect dessert really - I love pearls and green tea but I wanted something refreshing. I have a feeling I may get stuck on this dessert every time I go!

    And thanks for the plug :)

     

Post a Comment

<< Home


      << Read Older Posts       |       >> Read Newer Posts