A few months ago during work, I couldn’t stop thinking about how my next meal would consist of crab rangoon & some other noodle-y dish. When I walked across the street to a Thai restaurant that I knew served crab rangoon, I was so excited to dip these deep fried stuffed wonton apps in some delicious sweet & sour sauce. As I walked out of the restaurant, I opened the take-out bag to pop one of these pyramidal pockets of goodness in my mouth, but to my great disappointment, they were more melted cream cheese than imitation crab. I continued to crave these for weeks until I decided I would just make them myself after my second disappointment, which was from my new go-to Thai delivery joint. What is with Boston’s inability to make some half-way decent crab rangoon?! Well, I take that back, there is one restaurant that is mediocre Asian food at its finest *cough* Teriyaki House *cough* & they make a pretty solid serving of crab rangoon.
Crab Rangoon, is not by any means a traditional Chinese dish. If you’ve eaten some authentic Asian food in your life, you’ll quickly realize that cheese is not used in any traditional dish. While some Japanese dishes incorporate cheese in some deep fried dishes, these are fairly new innovations. So, even in a country like Vietnam, which was ruled by the French for 67 years & greatly influenced by them, cheese was never incorporated into our traditional dishes. Even our banh mi (sandwiches) never had cheese in them, rather, we stuck in some Vietnamese ham, pickled root vegetables, & spread some mayo & pâté & called it a day. Regardless, the combination of imitation crabmeat & cream cheese deep fried in a pocket made of wonton ranks #1 as my favorite Americanized Chinese dish. But as my post title insists, my crab rangoon recipe is healthier than ones you’ll order at your favorite Chinese take-out restaurant. Remember, just because they’re healthier doesn’t mean they’re a health food. Eating 10 crab rangoon a day will not replace your daily intake of vitamin C, so treat these as the treat they are.
Baked Crab Rangoon
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a pro-Americanized ethnic cuisine type of person, but I’m not 100% anti-Americanized food either. I thoroughly enjoyed orange chicken growing up & some days I just really crave a California roll, but it’s important to understand that these foods are not traditional authentic dishes – these dishes represent the evolution & adaptation of ethnic cuisine to American tastes. Lastly, if you’re wondering how crab rangoon taste when baked rather than deep fried, I’ll tell you: less heart-attacky, yet still crispy.
Recipes + 4 New Maine Albums
What’s your favorite Americanized something?
Cat
Ah! I missed seeing your 2 newest posts! They don’t show up on Bloglovin for some reason 🙁
I like your take on the Crab Rangoon 🙂 That’s an Americanized Chinese dish I don’t really order because many places mostly fill it with cream cheese. The funny thing about Americanized Chinese food is that some of it has shown up in China. The last time I was there, I had a meal where they set down a sweet and sour dish. I looked at it with confusion, and then one of my parents’ friends was like, “do you like it? We got the idea from the US.”
Lovely photos of Portland and Acadia too! Acadia looks beautiful, and I really like the two photos in your Portland gallery with the nifty blue wallpaper.
Tiff
Oh don’t worry about it! I’ve been so behind on returning comments, I feel bad about it. I’m going to catch up soon too, I just caught up with a lot of other things. I backdated this post, so that’s probably why!
Thank you! I love crab rangoon, but just like you said, lots of places tend to just fill it with more cream cheese than crab. I heard about people trying to start up a restaurant with Americanized Chinese food in China! I don’t think it’s particularly all terrible, but I definitely wouldn’t go to China hoping to eat it. That’s so funny though! I get why they’d want to cater to your American tastes, but hey, if we wanted to eat Panda Express, we have it back home. Just give us the authentic flavors!
Thank you for taking the time to check out the photos. 🙂 I loved the wallpaper in the mansion turned into museum in Portland, so I’m glad you noticed it too!
Connie
Seriously the only thought in my head after going through your new posts is when will I ever get a chance to taste your food??!?! So…….is there going to be a new restaurant opening or?
Tiff
You have all the chances in the world to eat my food, it’s why I post my recipes!
Rich
I would do dirty stuff for a killer crab Rangoon…. I’ve done worse for less….