Salsa and crab rangoon, together at last.

Actually, the two have been in a steady relationship the past 14 years at what’s easily one of the area’s oddest (and most genius?) restaurants, Jasmin in downtown Eudora. Jasmin serves both Mexican and Chinese food, and has since the restaurant opened in 2000 at 719 Main St. We’re not talking some kind of gourmet Mexican-Chinese-fusion cuisine, just Mexican and Chinese — Mexican in the front of the menu and Chinese in the back, a gilded dragon relief sculpture on one wall and Mexican blankets and sombreros on the other.

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Mexican menu items include entrees like guisado (beef chunks in red sauce), chicken en mole and several shrimp dishes, plus the usual tacos, tamales, burritos and combo plates. Chips and salsa are complimentary if you order something Mexican. Chinese offerings include soups, dumplings, lo mein, fried rice and three pages of chicken, beef, pork, shrimp and vegetarian entrees. I officed at the former Eudora News my first job out of college and remember particularly liking Jasmin’s Hot and Sour Cold Noodles for lunch on hot days (when I actually left the office for lunch).

Husband and wife J and Maria Ramirez opened and own Jasmin. They’re originally from Mexico, but J cooked for a long time at Chinese restaurants in Lawrence, so when they opened Jasmin they decided to serve both, Maria said.

The restaurant’s dishes are either-or. But Maria said she often sees people putting guacamole on Chinese food or dipping crab rangoon in salsa. She shrugs and laughs, “they like it.”

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Tips welcome!

Try something unusual or know of something interesting going on at a Lawrence restaurant? Send me an email at sshepherd@ljworld.com or contact me on Twitter @saramarieshep. For more local food and restaurant news, click here.