{"id":2051,"date":"2012-10-17T20:23:30","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T20:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/?p=2051"},"modified":"2017-03-20T01:52:03","modified_gmt":"2017-03-20T01:52:03","slug":"sapporo-ramen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/17\/sapporo-ramen\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapporo Ramen, Midtown West"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Another ramen place checked off the list: <a title=\"Sapporo Ramen\" href=\"http:\/\/www.menupages.com\/restaurants\/sapporo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Sapporo Ramen<\/a>! Central location, reasonable prices, decent variety. First thing I noticed was that 6 of the ramen bowls had revised descriptions. My guess is they decided to increase $$$ as ramen became more popular. <a href=\"http:\/\/letsnomnom.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/13.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2119\" title=\"Sapporo Ramen - Menu\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/13.jpg?w=584&amp;h=778\" alt=\"Sapporo Ramen - Menu\" width=\"584\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/13.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/13-450x600.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a>\u201cWe\u2019d like 2 glasses of plum wine?\u201d <em>\u201cOh, sorry. We don\u2019t have that anymore.\u201d<\/em> \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll have Sapporo instead.\u201d <em>\u201cSure. Are you ready to order your ramen?\u201d <\/em>\u201cYes, I\u2019ll have the Mabo Ramen.\u201d <em>\u201cOh, we\u2019re out of that too.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>First, we\u2019re seated near the kitchen and adjacent to 2 very noisy guys. Annoying, but forgivable since it\u2019s prime dinner hours on a Friday. And now, we pick 2 random items from the menu, and you\u2019re out of both. Not off to a good start, Sapporo. Plus, my expectations weren\u2019t even that high to begin with. Meh.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/letsnomnom.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/43.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2120\" title=\"Sapporo Ramen - Gyoza\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/43.jpg?w=584&amp;h=778\" alt=\"Sapporo Ramen - Gyoza\" width=\"584\" height=\"778\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/43.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/43-450x600.jpg 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a>We ordered the gyoza to share. 6 pieces for $5 (I think). Lightly greasy, but the beer rinsed it all down. The filling tasted okay. I remember having to use more soy sauce than usual. Honestly, I think we were more fascinated by the big box of chopsticks. An entire box of chopsticks for a little 2-person table! The box ended up coming in handy though. I accidentally dropped one of my chopsticks while enjoying my ramen. Oops. <a href=\"http:\/\/letsnomnom.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/53.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2121\" title=\"Sapporo Ramen - Sapporo Special Ramen\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/53.jpg?w=584&amp;h=438\" alt=\"Sapporo Ramen - Sapporo Special Ramen\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/53.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/53-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/53-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a>Angela and I both ordered the Sapporo Special Ramen ($12). When you\u2019re unsure of what to order, picking the house special is a safe bet. Miso broth (or at least that\u2019s what <a title=\"Sapporo Ramen\" href=\"http:\/\/www.menupages.com\/restaurants\/sapporo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">menupages<\/a> says) with charshu pork belly, minced pork, scallions, bamboo, corn, sesame seeds. Okay, let\u2019s be honest here\u2026 this is not the most attractive bowl of ramen. Google \u201cSapporo Special Ramen\u201d and all the photos look way better that what we were served. Looks like they used to include more toppings. This bowl sitting in front of me? Looks like it was thrown together really quickly and was left sitting in the kitchen for a long time. Thankfully the broth was still quite warm. <a href=\"http:\/\/letsnomnom.files.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/81.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2122\" title=\"Sapporo Ramen - Sapporo Special Ramen\" src=\"http:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/81.jpg?w=584&amp;h=438\" alt=\"Sapporo Ramen - Sapporo Special Ramen\" width=\"584\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/81.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/81-600x450.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/81-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><\/a>The noodles were al dente, extremely al dente, which isn\u2019t my style at all. I liked that this bowl included both charshu and minced pork. The charshu was lightly seasoned and quite meaty (but not tough). I enjoyed this much more than <a title=\"Ramen\u00a0Misoya\" href=\"http:\/\/letsnomnom.wordpress.com\/2012\/08\/28\/ramen-misoya\/\">Misoya\u2019s<\/a> gigantic slabs of meat. The rest of the toppings were okay. This broth was something special. Deliciously gingery with garlic and miso notes. Fairly light in terms of porky goodness. Bonus: I did not feel like I was being attacked by msg after consuming this bowl of ramen.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll probably visit Sapporo again. It\u2019s in Midtown, which makes it very accessible. The broth and pricing also stood out to me. Sapporo falls in the somewhere around the middle of the my NYC ramen rankings. We\u2019ll see\u2026 I plan on doing a big 2012 ramen round up at the end of the year. That should be interesting and will probably make me very hungry.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"border-radius: 2px; text-indent: 20px; width: auto; padding: 0px 4px 0px 0px; text-align: center; font: bold 11px\/20px 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,sans-serif; color: #ffffff; background: #bd081c  no-repeat scroll 3px 50% \/ 14px 14px; position: absolute; opacity: 1; z-index: 8675309; display: none; cursor: pointer; top: 108px; left: 167px;\">Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another ramen place checked off the list: Sapporo Ramen! Central location, reasonable prices, decent variety. First thing I noticed was that 6 of the ramen bowls had revised descriptions. My guess is they decided to increase $$$ as ramen became more popular. \u201cWe\u2019d like 2 glasses of plum wine?\u201d \u201cOh, sorry. We don\u2019t have that anymore.\u201d \u201cOkay, we\u2019ll have Sapporo instead.\u201d \u201cSure. Are you ready to order your ramen?\u201d \u201cYes, I\u2019ll have the Mabo Ramen.\u201d \u201cOh, we\u2019re out of that too.\u201d First, we\u2019re seated near the kitchen and adjacent to 2 very noisy guys. Annoying, but forgivable since it\u2019s prime dinner hours on a Friday. And now, we pick 2 random items from the menu, and you\u2019re out of both. Not off to a good start, Sapporo. Plus, my expectations weren\u2019t even that high to begin with. Meh. We ordered the gyoza to share. 6 pieces for $5 (I think). Lightly greasy, but the beer rinsed it all down. The filling tasted okay. I remember having to use more soy sauce than usual. Honestly, I think we were more fascinated by the big box of chopsticks. An entire box of chopsticks for a little 2-person table! The box ended up [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3355,3359],"tags":[539,1320,1498,1715,1823,1851,2310,2472],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/81.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wazwu.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}