THE FIVE SENSES - CHO CHA FOODSTORE
Taste is chemistry! It begins when a food molecule touches our taste buds on the tongue. The taste buds hide inside papillae, the pale dots made visible by the blue food colouring. This receptors send impulses to the brain that merges it with other senses. If all these senses are great, it would add up to a very rich, personal and joyful experience. With our visit to meet landscape architect Mr Mior, we ended up having lunch at their café down below. Housed in a space that is now stripped of its former brothel image and charmingly restored with a touch of raw vintage style reminiscent of Chinatown's glorious past. This refurbished building holds up to 4 freelance architects upstairs, a café downstairs, with future plans for expansions in the likes of a wine lounge and coffee bar.
As it was our first time visiting this place, we did not expect it to be a café. We thought we would walk into a very ordinary office for the architects but then again, we shouldn’t judge the book by its cover. As boring and rustic as the façade looks like, the interior is very warm and cosy. After meeting up with Mr Mior to get some ideas for our group design project, we headed down to Cho Cha Foodstore where we were invited with the smell of coffee, tea and fried chicken. As we sat down and begin looking through the menu, I can’t help but realise how cool this place is. Imagine having your office upstairs and whenever you get hungry you could just head downstairs to grab a bite (though I’m sure they could get the waiter to send food upstairs).
After a long hard thought at what to order, I finally decided to order the Biang Biang Inspired Noodles by Cho Cha Foodstore themselves. This dish consist of flat Chinese pesto noodles, local herbs, lots of peanuts and also Sichuan chili oil. This dish was filled lots of flavors and even before we had my first bite, I could already smell the fragrance coming from the herbs inside. As I ate this meal with my hungry stomach, it felt very satisfying and also filling at the same time. I definitely could taste the burst of freshness from the blend of fresh local herbs with every mouthful. With the Sichuan chili adding more kick to this dish, it completed the dish just perfectly. As they say, a Malaysian meal can never be complete without the presence of spiciness.
Besides that, we also order other dishes to try out such as the Duck Rice and also the Cincalok Fried Chicken. The Duck Rice has a hard boil egg that has a “golden” egg yolk. Apparently in most cultures across the world, the color of gold is acquainted with good luck and prosperity. The duck meat was very tender and succulent with the skin being the best part to eat for me due to it embodying all the flavors from the marinate. The Cincalok Fried Chicken on the other hand tasted superb! According to the menu, the chicken has been marinated with fermented shrimp sauce. The dish is paired with tomato and pineapple salsa and kitchen made tomato chutney. This dish was definitely delicious, juicy and full of Malaysian flavor. Who doesn’t like anything fried? Even kids would each fried vegetables ;)
BIANG BIANG NOODLES
Lastly, the drink that we ordered to wash down all this good food is the Lapsang Souchong. This is the first black tea in the tea history and also the original tea of Earl Grey. The smoky aroma of this tea accompanied by the dried longan provided a very thin and refreshing drink that I could not stop drinking. The flavors from the food made me thirst for a drink and this tea did a good job in quenching it. The best part is, this tea is free flow! Shots after shots we drank this tea down hahaha The counter that prepares this tea has the best place in this café as there was an indirect natural lighting right onto the counter top. From where we were sitting, we could observe her preparing the countless pots of teas for their customers.
DUCK RICE
CINCALOK FRIED CHICKEN
LAPSANG SOUCHONG
Of the 5 senses that we experienced there, the highest scoring ones in my opinion would be taste as well as sight. The flavors from the food and the very calm ambient of this café went well side by side. Sound and smell comes next followed by touch. The café had the light chatters from other customers which gave it enough sound for us to have a perception of space. The smell of coffee and tea filled the air with its aroma which made this place smell like any other café. Lastly, the sense of touch is above average to me from my experience there as they had tiled walls, unfinished concrete, various furnitures and also the wooden table we sat at. Hope this built your appetite to go have supper now :p
NO 156, Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Chocha is a hakka word which means "sit down and drink"