Cha-An

Many restaurants stop serving lunch around 2:30 p.m. Often, I'll neglect to check my watch and then walk around in a hungry haze, wishing I hadn't missed the cut-off. Fortunately, I now have a trusty standby for those hours between lunch and dinner: Cha-An.

The menu is limited at this Japanese teahouse, but there's a wonderful lunch set (the "B") with changing selections. Today, the B included: two jumbo shrimp in a gelatinous spicy ginger-chili sauce, a tiny slice of quiche, crunchy hunks of bamboo shoot with caramelized onions, creamy seafood chowder with tomatoes, onions and shiitakes, tea-smoked salmon slices under a refreshing shredded radish and sprout salad, 15-grain rice, and finally, chocolate cake with mousse, cherries and vanilla ice cream. All of this was accompanied by a pot of my favorite Japanese tea, genmaicha!

Cha-An: 230 East 9th St., 2nd Floor, (212) 228-8030.