It's funny how things change... or at least our perspectives.
You spend most of your career studying different food cultures and become obsessed with what is authentic and what's not. You cringe at American bastardations of other cuisines such as Italian and Chinese (to name the 2 most bastardized). It seems that the earliest foreign food cultures to exist in the USA are today the most mutated. It's so much easier to go out and find authentic Japanese or even moreso, Vietnamese, than to find a real Chinese restaurant... and by that I mean one that doesn't include dishes twisted or corrupted to appeal to the American tongue. I guess that's because Chinese food is so much older in America and that was in the late 1800's and early 1900's when we weren't so open-minded as we are today eating everything in site.
Now, I embrace our American bastardations... why not? There is a certain nostalgia in some of those dishes and enough time has passed to make them immortal in themselves. One of the best examples is crab rangoon in Chinese restaurants. I researched the dish a few years ago as a curiosity. It really does not exist in Chinese cuisine (just like chop suey)... only in American Chinese Restaurants. In fact, it would be fun to do an entire dinner based on refined versions of ABC dishes.
Crab rangoon is in its simplest form... crabmeat and cream cheese sealed in a wonton and fried. I used an 'open-faced' version last night that was actually an idea from 3 years ago. Instead of cream cheese, I used mascarpone. I sauteed wild mushrooms in sesame oil and mushroom soy sauce and creamed it with the mascarpone as a sauce. The lump crabmeat was quickly stir-fried with garlic, shallot, and cilantro. To make it even more interesting and to compliment the deep earthiness (hello! umami!) brought in by the addition of mushroom, I smoked it with wood and 5 spice under glass to send to the table. This is an easy holiday family-friendly 2 bite offering.
Doing this dish again has reminded me to take yet another look at bastardations and how much a part of our culture they are... and we are still bastardizing food! We rock, team America! Don't feel too bad... if you've ever had Western food in Asia they do a great job of bastardizing our foods as well... like ordering pasta with marinara and the red sauce ends up being ketchup. Easy mistake, right?