Finally, the mystery is solved. Growing up in the Midwest, whenever my friends or I would eat at Chinese restaurants, we would order Crab Rangoon, a necessary and yummy side order. When I moved to the East Coast and then the West Coast, I would try and specifically order Crab Rangoon, but it was never on the menus and the waiters had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. But when I'd go home to Kansas City on trips and would go to eat Chinese, there would be Crab Rangoon everywhere. I could never figure that out. Why would Midwestern Chinese restaurants have a Chinese speciality that more Asian-American locales on the East and West coasts wouldn't and wouldn't even know about? Well, thanks to an enterprising young Asian-American woman from the Bay Area who traveled throughout the country determining the differences in Chinese restaurants, we now have the answer:
But there you have what people think is Chinese food. It's a vicious cycle because restaurants adapt to local tastes. They see people really like that, so that's what they serve. Then people think that's what Chinese food is. So there are all these layers of weird perceptions and misperceptions that are fascinating.... I never heard of these things [Crab Rangoon] until I started working on the project... I googled it and came up with these scary recipes. They all involve cream cheese -- you know, that quintessential Chinese ingredient -- and fake crab meat and some onions. They serve it with a scary red sauce. It's everywhere. People out there love it. It's, like, mandatory. I think it's an evil alien plot.