Because it is a heavily americanized/westernized food and not really anything typically associated with Chinese or Thai food. That would be like saying somebody would expect an Italian restaurant make a great paella (yes, there are some overlap with risotto etc but nobody would normally expect that, so why should an authentic regional Chinese restaurant be expected to make a dish like ragoon which has little to do with Chinese cuisine
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I donât agree with your logic.
But, your mileage may vary, and your logic is not going to be the same as mine.
I also donât really care about authenticity at restaurants in North America.
Still on the menu at Tatiana in NYC.
Not really sure how this discussion is related to authenticity
I suppose there could be discussion of what makes an authentic crab rangoon. Presumably one made to the recipe of its inventor in the 50s. I can see a similar discussion in the UK over Anglicised dishes such as chicken tikka masala or chicken parmo.
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It wasnât great â greasy wrapper + oxtail made for a heavy bite, and crab was pretty undetectable (unlike crab + pork xlb, where the flavor comes through).
Crab Rangoon is mostly cream cheese with some fake crab enveloped in a light crunchy wonton wrapper, waiting to be dunked in sweet goopy sauce, so it was pretty far from an upgraded riff.
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" so why should an authentic regional Chinese restaurant be expected to make a dish like ragoon which has little to do with Chinese cuisine"
Crab rangoon can be found on menus at Asian restaurants in New England that you wouldnât expect, in what I imagine is an adaptation to regional tradition. For example, our go-to Sichuan restaurant includes a selection of Americanized dishes on the menu for diners who I expect would not otherwise eat there. Everything weâve ordered there has been tasty, whether itâs our fave Sichuan items or even crab rangoon.
I was curious about whether CR qualifies as a nostalgia dish for New Englanders, not having grown up here. Apparently so. Hereâs a fun article about restaurants serving up crab rangoon in the Greater Boston area. (Might encounter a paywallâsorry, no gift link available.) The dish looks to be having its revival moment, with trendy Cambridge [Massachusetts] tiki bar Wusong Road making 6,000 of the morsels weekly (at the time the article was written late last year). Puritan Oyster Bar, also in Cambridge, even has a crab rangoon dip on its menu.
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A local âItalianâ chain here serves CR pizzaâŚ
In case you are wondering â no, Iâve not tried it, but people absolutely LOVE it.
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I think it has become part of the New England culinary fabric. LOL
So, it was a regional thing for me to order it in Bostonâs Chinatown, and maybe a Regional Chinese Bostonian thing for it to be offered on the menu alongside the other dim sum.
I love trying Chinese American and Chinese Canadian foods, and treat some of them as regional foods in their own right. They were invented by Chinese Americans or Chinese Canadians, and they have their own culinary history.
In Canada, Ginger Beef in Calgary is a popular Chinese Canadian dish that was invented in Calgary, that is offered on most Chinese restaurants in the Prairies, whether theyâre serving regional dishes from China or Chinese Canadian food, or both.
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The crab rangoon pizza would be a bridge too far for me too. Also it would put me over my self-imposed crab Rangoon allowance of about once a year. My appetite likes fried cheesy things but my health has other ideas. 
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I noticed this recipe for Crab Rangoon toast
I would eat this, too.
A description that makes me want to NOT try it, however, since @Phoenikia likes it, I would try it once.
Hahaha. Feel no pressure to try it, Barney. Or get someone else to order it, and try one.
I think Iâm playing Advocate for Crab Rangoon because so many people seem to be a little hard on Crab Rangoon.
I also wish I could have been around when Tiki Bars were a big deal. There have been a couple in Toronto over the past 10 years, but the food has been an afterthought. Currently, we have one bar called The Shameful Tiki Room, which has a location in Vancouver as well as a location in Toronto.
The Shameful Tiki Room has 4 Rangoon for $12 on their menu.
Similarly, the Hunan place in our Chinatown has a menu section of more familiar Cantonese dishes, including a few Anglicised staples. I suspect not many get ordered as , every time we go there, the vast majority of customers look Chinese.
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This is common here too, although not universal. But in my experience those Americanized dishes are significantly less good (sometimes prepared with less care, other times simply not prepared in the way you might expect from an Americanized Chinese take-out joint) than the restaurantâs specialty regional offerings. Thatâs a broad generalization though - Iâm sure there are many restaurants here that do both successfully and I just havenât found them yet!
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I would bet that most buy them frozen.
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Change it to â why should a regional Chinese restaurant be expected to make a dish like ragoon which has little to do with Chinese cuisine"
