Crab Rangoon

Is anybody familliar with something I think is called Crab Rangoon ? Bascially It's wonton stuffed with Ricotta cheese. When I lived in Nebraska it seemed to be available, but not so much in the Detroit area

This leads me to another question. Has anyone ever notice the difference between Chinese food in different parts of the United States? For example Almond Boneless Chicken could chicken strips with gravy in one part of the country, (Mighigan) or cut up chicked with almonds in another, (Nebraska.) Also in one part of the Detroit area a dinner roll is offered with a meal, but not another.
I think this would be a good topic of a cullanary anthropologist.

Yep, noticed both things.

When I moved from NYC to Boston, suddenly crab rangoon appeared on menus. Theoretically (at least here), it's wonton wrapper enclosing a speck of crab (or surimi) and cream cheese (or a mix of surimi and cream cheese), deep fried.

Call me a skeptic, but something about cream cheese makes me think this is not completely authentic.

I've tried them a couple times at work lunches. Probably better than a fried Twinkie, but I'll stick with steamed dumplings.

As for bread, the only place I've seen bread brought to the table in Chinese restaurants was in R.I. in the 60s/70s. Rhode Islanders, being largely Italian at the time, could not eat a meal without bread. The story was that one restaurant owner got sick of people asking for bread, developed his own style of Italian bread, got out of the restaurant business, and only supplied Chinese restaurants. Whether or not it was true, Chinese restaurants were known for having the best bread.

Boston, with a longstanding Cantonese population, has good Chinese food including a lot of Hunan and Szechuan. In many cases you only need to travel 20 or 30 miles out of town to go back in time 30 years to the days of "pork sundae" style sweet and sour and canned bean sprouts.

Crab Rangoon is almost non-existant up here (Manitoba,Canada). I think I'd first heard of it on the Net and immediately wrote it off when I heard the use of cream cheese. Any asian food using dairy products is more fusion than authentic asian.

I cringe when I look at the massive maki rolls with cream cheese in them. Funny how people think that this is still healthy Japanese.

I have never seen bread in a Chinese restaurant.

It was interesting comparing North American Chinese food to the Chinese food in France(I lived there for 7 months. In France the restaurants seemed to serve shrimp chips with appetizers. They were big on steamed dumplings or "raviolis" as they call them. Egg Rolls naturally do not exist. Spring rolls do (Nems).

The little chinese/tai place in our town has the best crab rangoon I've ever had. I just brought a customer there for lunch the other day and they were raving about them too. Authentic or not they are excellent, but not very good for the waste line.

I heard that most of the cheesy "Chinese" dishes are a result the large European population that lives/lived in the Hong Kong colony.I wondered why wontons would be stuffed with cheese and ask a chinese friend about it.

quote:

Originally posted by Ashphalt

Yep, noticed both things.

When I moved from NYC to Boston, suddenly crab rangoon appeared on menus. Theoretically (at least here), it's wonton wrapper enclosing a speck of crab (or surimi) and cream cheese (or a mix of surimi and cream cheese), deep fried.

Call me a skeptic, but something about cream cheese makes me think this is not completely authentic.

I've tried them a couple times at work lunches. Probably better than a fried Twinkie, but I'll stick with steamed dumplings.

As for bread, the only place I've seen bread brought to the table in Chinese restaurants was in R.I. in the 60s/70s. Rhode Islanders, being largely Italian at the time, could not eat a meal without bread. The story was that one restaurant owner got sick of people asking for bread, developed his own style of Italian bread, got out of the restaurant business, and only supplied Chinese restaurants. Whether or not it was true, Chinese restaurants were known for having the best bread.

Boston, with a longstanding Cantonese population, has good Chinese food including a lot of Hunan and Szechuan. In many cases you only need to travel 20 or 30 miles out of town to go back in time 30 years to the days of "pork sundae" style sweet and sour and canned bean sprouts.

Hmm. No brainer here, aka "Chow Mein" (name your "meat") is authentic Chinese also??? Duh Huh...

I've noticed a definite difference in Chinese food in various areas of the country. Egg Foo Yung is way different in KC than in Chicago. I'll take Chicago's version. The Chinese food I've had in NYC is nothing like what we have here. Crab Rangoon here in KC is basically just lots of cream cheese, scallions (if you're lucky) and a minute amount of fake krab. In most of the places I've been in Minneapolis, anything resembling crab rangoon is called Cream Cheese Puffs, which seems to me a more accurate description. We had the most amazing Yellow Curry Cream Cheese Puffs at a now long gone Thai restaurant in MSP that contained a generous amount of yellow curry paste, real crab, scallions, rice wine, ginger and cream cheese. They were wonderful. Probably couldn't get them now.

quote:

Originally posted by zataar

I've noticed a definite difference in Chinese food in various areas of the country. Egg Foo Yung is way different in KC than in Chicago. I'll take Chicago's version. The Chinese food I've had in NYC is nothing like what we have here. Crab Rangoon here in KC is basically just lots of cream cheese, scallions (if you're lucky) and a minute amount of fake krab. In most of the places I've been in Minneapolis, anything resembling crab rangoon is called Cream Cheese Puffs, which seems to me a more accurate description. We had the most amazing Yellow Curry Cream Cheese Puffs at a now long gone Thai restaurant in MSP that contained a generous amount of yellow curry paste, real crab, scallions, rice wine, ginger and cream cheese. They were wonderful. Probably couldn't get them now.

My favorite Crab Rangoon is still at Bo Ling's in Kansas City. Haven't found any better...and the Orange Beef?? Man, Oh, Man.

My wife is from China and i introduced them to her. I've never had a crab rangoon that contained any crabmeat, real or fake. Just cream cheese, scallions and some spices.

Most of the Chinese places around me (KY) serve crab rangoons stuffed with creamcheese and if you're lucky a little shredded crabmeat. And, they're usually accompanied by the sickly-sweet (to me) sweet and sour sauce for dipping. I much prefer them with the potsticker sauce which around here is usually a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, Chinese red rice vinegar, minced ginger and scallions.
Along with some of you, I too have not seen bread served in a Chinese restaurant.

Andrea

I can only recall seeing a very dense flat bread made with sesame seeds & scallions. I can't recall seeing any crab rangoon at any Chinese restaraunt in Bejing, Shanghai or Ningbo. In fact there was no sweet & sour pork, bbq pork, kung pao chicken etc. Most of these are the American version of chinese foods. In fact rice was served at the end of the meals

The anthropologist Marvin Harris goes into the Chinese people's aversion of Diary in some of his writings. Check out Good To Eat, Cows Pigs Warriors And Witches, or Our Kind.

When I moved to the Bay Area of California a while back from the East Coast, I could not find my favorite dish, a staple of New York Chinese takeout...cold sesame noodles. It is pretty much ubiquitous in New York City, but I could find them nowhere in the San Francisco area. Plenty of noodle dishes (chow fun, etc.) but no cold sesame noodles. I think I went through withdrawal for a while!

I believe that crab rangoons are something that was created at Trader Vic's in California. It was supposed to be more of a Polynesian treat..... These are not to be confused with a Gorilla Monsoon, he was a great wrassler...

mark

quote:

Originally posted by doggydaddy



I believe that crab rangoons are something that was created at Trader Vic's in California. It was supposed to be more of a Polynesian treat..... These are not to be confused with a Gorilla Monsoon, he was a great wrassler...

mark

Although I don't know anything much about wrassling, I have also heard that Trader Vic invented the Crab Rangoon, which is I think my second favorite Chinese Restaurant appetizer.

Dan B,
who likes potstickers just a little bit better.

Regarding what is served while you wait for your meal. It seems that fried wonton skins with a sweet and sour dipping sauce is provided. I went to this one place for the first time the other day and they also provided a hot mustard for dipping with the S&Sour.
That was smart, as you now need to have a second beverage before the meal arrives.

At Thai restaurants, I like it when they provide shrimp chips with a sauce that I think is ketjip manis. That is what I had while living in California. Here in CT., they will also use wontons and a S&S dip.

mark

Oh yes,Trader Vic's the "inventor" of the Mai Tai. While I like crab rangoon, I really like those Mai Tais!

here's some info. They are hugely popular in St. Louis, although I don't really see the attraction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_rangoon

Are crab rangoon something new in Chinese cuisine? I know I've eaten them for the past 20 years or so, or at least a derivation of them. I thought originally they were called crab/cheese wontons, but the crab rangoon name seemed to take over some years ago...

I know I've had some in some dive Chinese places in Denver that were the best I've ever had. It's too bad they've got out of business due to high rents.

quote:

Originally posted by tacchino

When I moved to the Bay Area of California a while back from the East Coast, I could not find my favorite dish, a staple of New York Chinese takeout...cold sesame noodles. It is pretty much ubiquitous in New York City, but I could find them nowhere in the San Francisco area. Plenty of noodle dishes (chow fun, etc.) but no cold sesame noodles. I think I went through withdrawal for a while!

Little Shanghai in Walnut Creek has them (cold sesame noodles that is, not crab rangoon).

Isn't Rangood in what was Burma, not China.

Costco stocks them in the frozen Asian food section. I wasn't impressed when we tried them...but I wasn't going to bother with potstickers again either.

syrup:

I don't know about (or particularly care about) the history or authenticity of Crab Rangoon, but home-made crab rangoon is certainly delicious, in my opinion.

My wife makes them frequently.

There are many recipes on the internet (Google it).

My wife uses Neufchatel cream cheese and fresh Maryland crab meat when she makes them. She deep-fries the rangoon in peanut oil in our DeLonghi deep-fryer.

I can eat a half-dozen in a sitting as a side to a Chinese/American dinner . . . in which I usually prepare the main course(s).

Crab rangoons are also delicious as a midnight snack, and EVEN for breakfast with the appropriate Asian-style omelet.

I can't comment on the supermarket frozen varieties. We never buy that stuff!

Many of the chinese restaurants around here in San Antonio serve them.At least the ones in Schertz and Universal City do,Like Shanghai,China Moon,Dragon Lake etc.They are mainly cream cheese and scallions,very little crab.We lived in Okinawa and Alaska,and any chinese places we ate there didn't of course serve crab rangoon.
I forget waht the dense bread with scallions is called. But have never had it around here.
Almond chicken here is alomnds with cut up chicken,celery,water chestnuts and some other veggies.

Ok I just asked my Chinese coworkers We played what appeared to be 20 questions or charades, they said it's called Ta-bean or green onion bread. They said we call it bread but it's not eaten like our American bread. Next week I will ask them what it is for...

It has been my personal experience that unless you have a Chinese speaking person w/ you in a Chinese restaurant in America you're going to get faux Chinese food. Double fried this and cheese stuffed that...

quote:

Originally posted by BunglingBill

syrup:

I don't know about (or particularly care about) the history or authenticity of Crab Rangoon, but home-made crab rangoon is certainly delicious, in my opinion.

My wife makes them frequently.

There are many recipes on the internet (Google it).

My wife uses Neufchatel cream cheese and fresh Maryland crab meat when she makes them. She deep-fries the rangoon in peanut oil in our DeLonghi deep-fryer.

I can eat a half-dozen in a sitting as a side to a Chinese/American dinner . . . in which I usually prepare the main course(s).

Crab rangoons are also delicious as a midnight snack, and EVEN for breakfast with the appropriate Asian-style omelet.

I can't comment on the supermarket frozen varieties. We never buy that stuff!

DeLonghi deep-fryer... hmm, thanks! I have been considering finally getting a deep-fryer and now, BBill, I have a lead!

quote:

Originally posted by V960

It has been my personal experience that unless you have a Chinese speaking person w/ you in a Chinese restaurant in America you're going to get faux Chinese food. Double fried this and cheese stuffed that...

My wife is originally from China. When we got to a Chinese restaurant and she talks to them in English we are given "foreign devil" menus, but if she talks to them in Chinese she gets a Chinese menu. The items on the Chinese menu are usually cooked by the head chef, while those on the English menu are usually cooked by the assistants.

quote:

DeLonghi deep-fryer... hmm, thanks! I have been considering finally getting a deep-fryer and now, BBill, I have a lead!

Yeah, we have had one for several years now and really like it. Draining and filtering the grease is so easy with the rubber spout that it has. Also the unit is easy to clean.

It has many unique and really handy features IMHO.

We bought ours BEFORE DeLonghi came out with the model that has the built-in "stirrer", so I don't know how that stirrer thing works, but our old "basic" model is a real jewel.

Good luck.

My favorite Crab Rangoon is still at Bo Ling's in Kansas City. Haven't found any better...and the Orange Beef?? Man, Oh, Man.




Bo Lings is really good but when I grew up in KC, I think I first had them at the long gone Princess gardens up on Wornall or Lamar, around 75th street. With sweet and sour and hot mustard to muddle together ~ boy, long time ago!

The crab rangoons very here from store to store, some are sweeter some more spicey.

I like the one a little spicey, and forget that blasted red sweet sauce YUCK!!