Grub Crawl - Chinatown: Sapporo Ramen (Closed) and Chinese Cuisine

For those who don't know, Chinatown is a small strip mall on west Colonial (50) that houses the Oriental Market. I ate here today.

Sapporo Ramen - I think the fat lady at the Sentinel turned me on to them.They just opened recently. It's a little noodle restaurant. I have to admit that I've never become a devotee to this branch of Japanese cuisine. Maybe it is the association with Top Ramen or Oodles of Noodles, but, I just don't get shelling out $10 for soup. No matter what they top it with or how great the noodle is supposed to be. I remember a girlfriend dragging me to the first trendy import in Soho and my anger that there was no sushi and the noodles cost $50. I'm not sure, but, I think this is the first or one of the few to try its luck in Central Florida. I had (I forget the name, but, it meant fox) a Udon (large noodle) bowl with a fried tofu "blanket" and onions, carrots, mushrooms, scallions and baby bok choy for $9. It was predictable. A slightly too sweet broth and fresh vegetables. They have about three Udon bowls and three Soba bowls and some rice platters. Some rolls too. All are about the same price. Rolls are $5. The place seats about thirty. It was pretty full of a mixed crowd. You order at the register and they bring a bowl. The place is new. They have a black ink mural along the top of the walls (too high) and some interesting wall sconces of people done in similar ink. The beer signs and busy glass window kind of clash with the rest. It's perfectly respectable. Just not my addiction.

Chinese Cuisine - I saw they had dim sum when I went into Sapporo (next to it) so I ditched my scheduled stop for take out dinner and tried a few dishes to go. All, but, the last didn't survive the trip. I started with your regular shrimp dumplings for $2.75. Not bad. Full of shrimp fused together with some binder. The dumpling fell apart. Then I had what was supposed to be a crab meat and shark fin dumpling, but, was a pork and mushroom and shark fin dumpling. I would have chosen that if I had a choice anyway. It was the best. It only cost $2. Very big portion. All the dumplings came in groups of four. I held off on the steamed ribs with black beans sauce for $2. A fair amount of pork even after you accounted for the bones. The sauce was the first clear black bean sauce I've had to my imperfect memory. Not bad. They took every minute of the fifteen they quoted to deliver the meal, so, I guess it was fresh. The place is old school Chinese. Spartan decoration and little care to aesthetics. It seats around eighty. It was pretty empty at 1:30. Chinese crowd. The menu is funky. Fish heads, offal, jellyfish, frog, glue pudding, fish stomach. You get the picture. However, they do have a lot of non-American Chinese food that you should be ok with and you should be eating instead of the aforementioned. Most dishes barely touch the teens in price. Include this place in your culinary evolution/education. And you don't have that many choices for authentic dim sum (and then some) anyway.