1 week Ago By Katelyn Umholtz
By Katelyn Umholtz What would the perfect crab rangoon crawl around Greater Boston look like? One Redditor brought the question to the Somerville subReddit in September, hoping to map a journey that would take them to the best crab rangoon spots in Cambridge and Somerville . “Some may call me crazy. ‘You can’t eat all that cream cheese in one day, you’re lactose intolerant’ or ‘half of these aren’t even made with crab,’” the post read.
“They are right, but it’s my responsibility to try.” It isn’t immediately clear if Reddit user SCO0TS ever went on this envious crawl. According to the post, the Redditor already had some places in mind, including The Mad Monkfish, Siam Ginger Thai Cuisine, Wusong Road, Puritan Oyster Bar, BoonNoon Market (in Arlington), and Fuji (multiple locations).
But what we at Boston.com know is this: With the help of our readers, we can map out our own crab rangoon crawl, and not just for Camberville residents. We specifically asked for the best crab rangoon around, and 64 readers chimed in with their go-to spots.
Some restaurants got multiple nods, like Tiki Rock , the downtown tiki bar that serves Pu Pu Platters and Mai Tai cocktails. “I love the great balance of real lump crab meat, cream cheese, and that addictive sweet flavor that comes with every bite,” said Jere C. from Boston.
Curtis, general manager at Tiki Rock, said their crab rangoon is their top-selling dish at the restaurant and bar. “I think most people fall in love with [crab rangoon] at some point in life from Chinese food, and that never goes away,” McMillan said about its popularity. Other top picks included another tiki bar, Wusong Road in Cambridge, and Chinese restaurant-nightclub Golden Temple in Brookline.
At the former, chef Jason Doo said their Wusong Road team makes 6,000 crab rangoon by hand each week, making it one of the Cambridge restaurant’s three top sellers. Doo agreed that nostalgia plays a big role in this appetizer seemingly never going out of style. It reminds people of those special nights when family would order takeout; for Doo, it brings him back to his parents’ former Chinese-American restaurant, Bobo’s in Malden, when he’d eat crab rangoon after school while doing homework at the eatery.
“They’re everything you want in a snack: crunchy, creamy, cheesy, and just the right mix of savory and sweet that American Chinese food really nails,” Doo said. Thai restaurants made the list, as did Chinese takeout spots, Route 1 landmarks, and more elevated dining spaces. Most of the crab rangoon on this list were made with your traditional ingredients: crab meat or imitation crab paired with cream cheese and put into fried wonton wrappers.
But some eateries took different approaches, maybe by adding cranberry into the filling, or deconstructing the crab rangoon into a chip-and-dip appetizer. What many readers noted in their recommendations was that their favorite spots got the ratio of ingredients and the texture right. “It’s crunchy, full of flavor, it’s not greasy or over filled, or under filled — it’s just right,” said Frank D.
from Dracut about the crab rangoon from Wusong Road. We didn’t taste-test all the recommended crab rangoon — you’ll have to trust your fellow neighbors’ tastebuds on this one. There are also 52 options on the list.
Obviously the idea is not to do all of these in one crawl (though if you do, please share your triumph with a certain Boston.com food reporter ), but to make mini crawls using the map. Maybe you do stick to Cambridge and Somerville, or maybe you take your own North Shore or South Shore crawl.
Either way, you’ll be eating crab rangoon, and that sounds like a pretty fantastic reason to get out of the house. Katelyn Umholtz Katelyn Umholtz covers food and restaurants for Boston.com.
Katelyn is also the author of The Dish, a weekly food newsletter . Boston.com Today Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.
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