
How a fusion of at least four cuisines created crab rangoon - thomasjudge
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-crab-rangoon
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derefr
I think of it this way: immigrant cultures are their own culture, that should
not be confused with their "parent" culture in their homeland.

Thus, Crab Rangoon is an _authentic_ cuisine... of the American Chinese
immigrant culture. As in, it was invented by "American Chinese" people—a
particular people—and they can claim it as part of their (rather new-ish)
cultural heritage.

As long as you make this distinction, the argument over whether something "is"
authentic goes away. Everything is authentic. The question becomes: what is
this-or-that food an authentic example _of_?

~~~
Wistar
Alton Brown, in his inaugural episode of "Good Eats: The Return," points out
that most of what is known in the U.S. as Italian food has its origins in
Little Italy, New York.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kg6regArFY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kg6regArFY)

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phil248
" There’s a fundamental problem with the concept of authenticity in food..."

Yes, the problem being that I have never heard someone accuse a food of being
inauthentic without sounding like they are desperately trying to sound
cultured or cool or high status.

~~~
youeseh
If I'm an Indian in California craving Indian food "just like home", am I
desperately trying to sound cultured?

Maybe I was cultured to begin with! :D

There is a point when food attributed to a culture but not invented by it
gains authenticity - when the culture that it is attributed to adopts it. A
few examples:

\- Tikka Masala (British)

\- Burrito (California)

\- Siracha Sauce (California)

\- Pepperoni (New York?). But, we're still waiting on Italians on this one.

~~~
tomjakubowski
The popular Mission style burrito was invented in 20th century California, but
people have been rolling meat or beans or veggies into tortillas for a very
long time. And they were called "burritos", in Mexico, as early as 1895.

Quoting the Diccionario de Mexicanismos, which says "burrito" is a term from
Guanajuato state:

Tortilla arrollada, con carne u otra cosa dentro, que en Yucatán llaman
cozito, y en Cuernavaca y en Méjico, taco

(rolled tortilla, with meat or something else inside; in Yucatán called
"cozito", and in Cuernavaca and Méjico "taco")

[https://books.google.com/books?id=u2xQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA98](https://books.google.com/books?id=u2xQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA98)

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codegeek
"American Chinese" food has to be uniquely American. I temporarily lived in
HongKong for about 18 months and I still remember my shock of landing in HK
and not finding "General Tso's Chicken" anywhere :). The ignorant American in
me then realized that Chinese food in HK (and this is not even mainland china)
is so different. Then I learned that there is a specific type of Chinese food
called Szechuan that is generally spicy which probably comes close but that is
a small part of real chinese food. I could still be wrong in understanding all
this but at some point, I stopped worrying and start enjoying the food :)

~~~
Duhck
There's a great comedic documentary called "Searching for general tso" that's
a great watch on this topic.

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tetra_proxy
>What the Heck is Crab Rangoon Anyway?

Delicious, that's what it is.

~~~
pickle-wizard
I was out with a friend a few months a go, who does not like seafood. I
ordered some crab rangoon. I offered him one. He said he doesn't like seafood.

I told him to trust me and just try a bite. He ended up eating most of them
and now every-time we go out to Chinese, he orders them.

I've discovered as I've gotten older. It is not so much that I don't like
foods, as I don't like ways of preparing it. For example I don't like cooked
fish, but I love sushi. Seriously I can go to a sushi restaurant and spent
$150 by myself. Something about cooking fish gives it a different taste that I
don't like.

~~~
kian
It might be something about the "cooking fish" that people serve that's
different from sushi fish - freshness. I used to hate all fish, then liked
only sushi, and only eventually moved into enjoying cooked fish as well. The
last only happened when I discovered that fresh fish never smells like fish,
even when cooked.

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bitxbitxbitcoin
Since the author mentioned Yakamein, it's also worth noting that Bourbon
Chicken is named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans and is also another
American Chinese dish that is native to the South.

Another interesting tidbit, from watching the General Tso's documentary, is
that the Missouri family that invented Cashew Chicken still adamantly claims
that McDonald's took their fried chicken chunks recipe to make their now
famous McNuggets.

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Endy
Why should anyone worry about 'authenticity' in food? Perhaps I'm very
American in my view here, but my thought is that taste comes before history.
Crab Rangoon, which I've interestingly never seen relabeled Crab Yangon, is a
call back to the more interesting or enthusiastic past. I wish we had that
kind of invention left in today's kitchens.

~~~
Splognosticus
The best reason that comes to mind is that the American version is its own
separate thing from the original. Tex-Mex and authentic Mexican food for
example are both great and I wouldn't want to go without either.

