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New York Times
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
America's Love Affair With Crab Rangoon Goes Supernova
During the first two days Sidedoor Bagel in Indianpolis sold its Mr. Krabs Rangoon special — crab-flecked cream cheese and a fried egg inside a spicy everything bagel studded with Sichuan pepper flakes, sweet chile sauce and wonton strips — there were more than 100 orders, making it the shop's most popular special to date. 'The creamy, sweet and spicy components make it so loved by everyone,' said Josh Greeson, the owner of Sidedoor Bagel, who grew up eating crab Rangoon from the Chinese American restaurant in his rural Indiana hometown. 'It translates well to experimenting with different cuisines.' The crab Rangoon is neither from Rangoon (present-day Yangon, Myanmar) nor reliably made with real crab. Imitation crab, also known as surimi, and cream cheese are tucked into wonton wrappers — perhaps the dish's only Chinese component — and deep-fried. That it first appeared on menus in California in the late 1940s at the vaguely Polynesian-influenced Trader Vic's chain only muddies the waters. But those details are mere trivialities to the chefs who have turned their love for Rangoons into mozzarella sticks, pasta, melts and more. 'It sounds like someone drunk on mai tais made it,' said Grace Lin, the author of 'Chinese Menu: The History, Myths and Legends Behind Your Favorite Foods.' She explained that many Chinese restaurateurs looked to American tastes to come up with appetizers, which are uncustomary in Chinese cooking except at banquets. 'Since crab Rangoon was popular and already considered Asian, they seized the opportunity and claimed it as their own in order to survive.' In Des Moines, King Ying Low, the oldest Chinese restaurant in Iowa, closed in 2008 and reopened the following year as Fong's Pizza, which serves Asian-inflected pizzas inspired by dishes like General Tso's chicken and banh mi sandwiches. But Fong's kept the Rangoon on the menu, albeit in the form of a pizza made with a cream cheese base, imitation crab, mozzarella and Asiago cheeses and crushed wonton strips. It's the restaurant's 'most popular pizza by four or five times,' said Chris Mendenhall, a managing partner. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Boston Globe
15-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Trump is reshaping the federal government's relationship to the arts — and Massachusetts artists are already feeling the effects
Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the same time, she added, 'It's through art that we've always been able to say the things we either couldn't say, or wouldn't say, or weren't allowed to say. . . . That is why art is so important.' Advertisement Children's book author and illustrator Grace Lin stands for a portrait near her Northampton home in 2021. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Lin is one of many Massachusetts artists feeling a sense of loss following a raft of cultural decisions made by the Trump administration. In addition to the Kennedy Center takeover, they range from Last week, the National Endowment for the Arts initiatives. The NEA said it was scrapping the 2026 Challenge America grant, which, for decades, has issued payments to small arts organizations reaching underserved communities. Advertisement Among the 'It's the typical authoritarian playbook,' said Timothy Merton, director and founder of Sarasa. The group plans to use the grant money to fund its 'The message is that the culture of any people of color, or poor people, they don't really count in this new era,' Merton said. In a Feb. 6 press release, the NEA said it was diverting resources from Challenge America in order to focus the agency's efforts on projects that 'celebrate and honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.' Tiane Donahue, treasurer of Boston City Lights, criticized the decision for having 'nothing to do with the on-the-ground work that a lot of groups are doing' through the arts. Donahue called it 'disheartening and disappointing' that programming like the Boston City Lights summer program, which takes predominately low-income teens from Boston to Maine for a performing arts intensive, will no longer be prioritized by the NEA. The federal arts agency also announced that only applicants with a five-year history of arts programming will be eligible for grants moving forward. The stipulation has raised concerns about how newer arts organizations will find their financial footing without NEA grant eligibility. Advertisement 'If we were to rewind a few years, we wouldn't even be eligible,' said Maddie McDougall, director of Resilient Community Arts, which she founded in 2021. McDougall said the group's $10,000 NEA grant was 'the largest funding amount we had ever gotten' for the visual arts programming her organization provides at South Congregational Church in Springfield, which serves students from the nearby Milton Bradley School. Fuller Craft Museum director of development Kara Matthews is anticipating more arts-related federal spending cuts. She said they would force many arts organizations to be more reliant on philanthropy to survive, which 'could be hard for funders to absorb.' Still, 'we're not in any way changing our exhibitions to be more accommodating to NEA's focus,' Matthews said. The museum used its Challenge America grant funds to help pay for a recent installation by Cambridge-based painter, printmaker, and public artist Artist Cicely Carew installed her new show, "BeLOVEd," which was supported by an NEA Challenge Grant, at Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton last month. NEA has cancelled the grant program, which aided small arts organizations reaching underserved communities. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe Staff Joe Spaulding, former chief executive of the Boch Center, said politicizing federal arts organizations is 'a mistake.' Spaulding, 'The arts should never be that way. Arts and music are the foundation of a civilized society, and the public should decide what they want to see.' Julian E.J. Sorapuru is an Arts Reporter at the Globe and can be reached at
