 "Photo: Miriam Dick")
The campus community has been blessed with the highest percentage of Chinese restaurants per person than anywhere else in Columbus, with a relationship dating back to the 1970s.
The restaurants serve the needs of the large Chinese population looking for pieces of home and the student population looking for an inexpensive bite to eat. The whole schema seems to work, and the relationship will continue for years to come, even after redevelopment and higher-priced dining options move in.
Chinese Village, located at 2124 N. High St. at the corner of Lane (next to Shell), has been a longtime staple for many a hungry diner.
The inside is not in the least bit shady like some of the other places and most won't mind eating there. A large window faces High Street where the front portion of the dining room where the larger tables sit. The small back area is much narrower and a little cramped, but ideal for single or duel diners.
The menu comprises of a mix of Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine, offering more than a hundred different dishes such as soup, poultry, seafood, pork, beef, tofu and noodles.
The lunch specials offer many items on the menu at a discounted price and may include a choice of soup and an egg roll.
The Hot and Sour Soup ($1.75 bowl/ 85 cents cup), a nice starter, has a thick broth and it's little spicy, but not unbearable. The bowls are filled with plenty of vegetables and tofu and not just broth.
Eggrolls ($1; pork or vegetable) are crisp and chewy. They are of average size and have a hearty mild spice, but are a little light on the fillings with more air than pork and cabbage.
General Tso's Chicken ($8.25), one of the most popular Americanized Chinese dishes, is given proper treatment with large crisp pieces of white meat in a sweet, spicy almost barbecuey sauce. The bed of fried rice it's served on is prepared traditionally with peas and egg and not the unidentifiable bits of meat that some places include.
There are plenty of other choices besides the everyday Americanized Chinese options, all of which come in huge gut-busting sizes. The Szechuan Eggplant ($5.75) is a soupy display of long, mushy strips of eggplant in a sweet and mildly spicy sauce over a canvas of white rice. The eggplant, waterchestnuts and celery all looked like they came from a can but kept flavor.
There were only a few small bits of meat in the BBQ Pork Lo Mein ($4.75), and the BBQ element was undetectable. The heaping pile of spaghetti-like noodles and assorted veggies were doused in a thin, salty sauce. They're perfect for take-out and eating right from the box with a pair of chopsticks.
The Shrimp with Lobster Sauce ($6.95) mixed large, juicy pieces of sautéed shrimp, peas, carrots, and water chestnuts in a light buttery, white cream sauce. With the help of the sauce, the shrimp actually taste a little bit like a butter-soaked piece of lobster, but the abundance of plain as day water chestnuts make up most of the dish and don't add much to it.
Shang Hai Beancurd ($5.25) looks a little like French toast sticks and doesn't taste much different (minus syrup, of course). The fried tofu rectangles taste more like egg and plain grits than anything else. The soft moist substance is good for absorbing the dipping sauce.
And for dessert the always favorite, always crunchy, baked with wisdom, Fortune Cookie. Today's Fortune: Chinese food clean out body better than Hollywood miracle diet (Lucky Numbers 5, 27, 2003).
Chinese Village is open from 11a.m.-10p.m. (Tuesday through Thursday); 11a.m.-11p.m. (Friday); noon-11p.m. (Saturday); and noon-10 p.m. (Sunday).
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