O Cha Cafe — a friendly Thai hideaway — should be a hot spot seething with foodie tourists who can’t wait to devour authentic appetizers and sumptuous curries. Instead, O Cha fights for visibility amidst the palpitating yammer of other people’s necessities. It is situated in Chicago at 2907 N. Lincoln Avenue, on an obscure corner, smack dab in the middle of a raging sign war.
The restaurant’s environs remind you of one of those old trunks plastered with decals from other folks’ trips. First, a hand-painted billboard heralds the brassy car wash next door. (Unless you are searching for a Simonize, you probably wouldn’t even know this jolly Thai contender exists.) Next, broadsides from the City of Chicago trumpet "Speed Limit 25" as well as an alternate "Snow Route." Thank goodness, an "Open House" sign — publicizing who knows what — recently bit the dust. Meanwhile, O Cha announces itself with a demure sign the size of a dinner plate. Satisfied that O Cha’s door was not the entrance to the car wash, we snaked our way through the strangely shaped restaurant, found a place in the back and decided to focus on appetizers.
"People trust me. That’s why they come to eat my food. I want people to come in and say,‘Cook for me,’ said chef/co-owner Uthaiwan Wiitanen — nicknamed Toom — a native of Bangkok, Thailand.
Wiitanen runs O Cha Cafe with spouse, Wayne, an American whom she met in 1998 and married in 1999. In fact, Wayne might well take your order or fill you in on their exploits, hopes, and dreams. "We have so many ideas. Toom wants to teach everyone about the Thai culture," he told us.
It is said that the endless grinding and pounding of mortar and pestle in Thailand eases tensions, making cooking a joyous release of unhealthy emotions. "In Thailand, if a mother is having trouble with an overly energetic son, she asks him to help her in the kitchen," Wayne told us.
Clearly, Chef Wiitanen has found peace in the kitchen, to judge by her enthusiasm and radiant face. Along the line, she forsook a slew of endeavors, including law, business management, telecommunications, cosmetology, and massage. The Thais feel life should be sanuk — which means pleasurable or fun — and Chef Wiitanen goes for the radiance. "We have fun when we get in the kitchen. Everyone has a function. Cooking is sanuk. It’s fun," she said.
O Cha means "delicious," and much of the sizzle at O Cha stems from the amazingly fresh ingredients. Wiitanen buys her green beans and eggplants at the Thai market at Argyle and Broadway, her Thai shrimp and crabmeat in Chinatown, her fresh tofu from a Chicago artisanal factory. Wiitanen ran a tiny restaurant in Bangkok and admits, "The old style smells different." Now, she aims to get her tastes as close to the old style as possible using a modern blender along with her pots and pans.
Smitten with our knowledge that Crab Rangoon is "too American," we ordered Kha-nom Jeeb, served with sweet soy dipping sauce. When our bite-sized dumplings arrived, we found them absolutely "o cha" light as air, filled with yummy shrimp and garnished with fresh chopped green onion and fried garlic. Pinched at the top to resemble mini money bags , they left us feeling like Kha-nom-Jeeb misers, yearning for more and murmuring "O cha cha." After all, they made our palates dance.
Next we awaited Tod Mun, deep-fried Thai fish cakes, served with a zingy sweet sauce made with garlic pickle. Fortunately, our hunger had not yet peaked, since everything is prepared to order and nothing zipped out of the kitchen. Upon arrival, the Tod Mun were delectable morsels, another major pleasure in mini form. We cut them without benefit of knives, Thai style.
Then, the Fried Tofu came out as a heaping order, and Stephen declared it "a perfect ending to a smashing beginning." It was served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce. Other appetizers, reserved for another time, were yummy, delicate Egg Rolls encasing ground chicken, garlic, and black pepper. Fried Chicken Dumplings were available, but not on the menu.
Real Thai cooking is a balancing act in which hot (pungent), sour, sweet, salty, and bitter tastes are brought into robust, tasty equipoise. For our inaugural entrées, we fell for the Thai curries, available in all degrees of heat, with choice of tofu, chicken, pork, beef, or vegetables. When our very hot Red Curry arrived, we weathered a symphony of blazing, then fell into a spicy bath, a luscious wallow of robust flavors floating in creamy coconut sauce. After that, we couldn’t stop shoveling in glorious bamboo shoots, succulent eggplants, buttery soft chicken, hot peppers, green beans, and tomatillas. "Keep the curries coming," we cried.
By now we had all our dishes on the table at once, eating Thai communal style. Our medium hot, vegetarian Panang Curry, a sweeter variety with more herbs, wowed us with a coconut milk immersion of pinkish-brown, a queenly dip for asparagus, green beans, tomatoes, and red peppers. When asked how she sweetens her Panang, Wiitanen smiled, but remained mysterious "I have my secret," she said. A mild, vegetarian Green Curry surprised us with an explosion of sliced bamboo shoots, followed by a fanfare of eggplant and tomatillos.
Actually, chewing is a bliss to be recaptured at O Cha. The super crunchy Green Papaya Salad — known as Som Tum and dubbed O Cha Salad — is easy to adore, and Toom Wiitanen is the queen of this dish. "I love it," she said with such rapture that it was a small wonder it had ever made it out of the kitchen. Here the sliced green fruit does its number with a lip-smacking sauce combining a perfect balance of sweet, sour, and salty. This crunchy dance — with its flashing explosion of palm sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, and dried shrimp — inspired spontaneous "o chas." O Cha Salad partners green papaya with vigorous green beans, sprightly tomatoes, fresh red peppers, dried Thai shrimp, and passionate peanuts in a crazy rumble of tastes.
Now, the question arises. How far beyond curries should entrée seekers venture? Our Stir-Fried Asparagus with Oyster Sauce danced with Tiger Shrimp from Thailand and was very tasty. We brought some home, ate it cold, drizzled the savory sauce over rice, and it was still yummy. "This is a different way to do asparagus," Wiitanen said; she even offered to share the recipe.
Beyond this, O Cha offers an abundance of rice and fish dishes, consistent with the popular Thai saying "new rice, fat fish." Our two rice noodle dishes, Pad Thai and Pad See Ewe, displayed an understated modesty compared with the knockout curries. The Ginger Duck abounded in sizzle and kick, the succulent onions playing with crunchy green peppers, bathed in a tasty garlic and black bean sauce. Other dishes, for other forays, include Thai Fried Rice, Sweet and Sour Shrimp or Squid, and Pla Duk Pad Ped, deep-fried codfish topped with red curry sauce, green beans, sliced kaffir, and lime leaves.
And if all this splendor wasn’t jolly enough, we savored the Grass Jelly Drink, which slithers up your straw like jello. (Order it if you need a conversation starter — or if you want to gross out Grandma.) In further tribute to authenticity, one foodie called with his advance order of Gruay Bud Chee — slices of banana and coconut swimming in coconut milk. (We love a place where we feel comfortable enough to ask the chef to fix insider dishes for culinary tourists like us.)
Our sighs of pleasure peaked with Sweet Sticky Rice with Fresh Mango, a marvelous dessert blending sweetness, stickiness, crunchiness, and the special succulence of ripe mango. (It’s not on the menu, but you can always order it.) This absolutely dreamy concoction is topped with crunchy toasted yellow mung beans. Enamored of our amazing mango, Stephen was compelled to ask, "How does she find such ripe mangoes?" Wiitanen actually seeks them in numerous markets, testing them by feel, sniffing them for fragrance, pursuing prize fruits.
O Cha’s surroundings are simple and clean, with plastic table cloths, perfect for laughing customers ready to fall into a world where everything promises to be sanuk. In fact, Wiitanen aims to open a cooking school in the near future, in which case a minimum of five students will cram themselves into her merry kitchen, learning the ancient art of "anything on the menu," including stir fry, pot stickers, spring rolls, and curries.
Entrées range from $5.95 to $9.95. The three-course dinner runs somewhere between $15 and $20 per person, not including the tip. Wine is BYO. Vegans can request culinary adjustments.
O Cha Cafe is open seven days a week; Monday through Thursday, 11:30 am to 10:00 pm; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 am until 11:00 pm; Sunday, 3:00 until 9:00 pm. At $5.95, the lunch special is served Monday through Friday, from 11:30 am until 3:00 pm. Takeout, delivery, and catering are also available.
O Cha Cafe, 2907 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, 773-883-0242
Stir-Fried Asparagus with Oyster Sauce and Thai Shrimp "Toom Style"
2 Tablespoons soybean oil
7-8 Tiger Shrimp from Thailand
1 Tablespoon fresh garlic chopped
3 tiny Thai chiles, chopped
1 pound asparagus, cut on angle, ends (not tips) removed
1 Tablespoon Thai soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Thai oyster sauce
Pour soybean oil into a skillet and turn heat high. Add the shrimp and stir-fry until it turns pink. Add garlic, chiles, and asparagus. Stir-fry for one to two minutes, then add soy sauce and oyster sauce. Turn once or twice, but do not stir. Vegetables should be firm and not overcooked. Serve at once. Makes two servings.
Ethel Hammer is a writer specializing in articles with a culinary bent. Her husband Stephen Kleiman is a chef, food product developer, and entrepreneur.