" There’s a fundamental problem with the concept of authenticity in food..."
Yes, the problem being that I have never heard someone accuse a food of being inauthentic without sounding like they are desperately trying to sound cultured or cool or high status.
"American Chinese" food has to be uniquely American. I temporarily lived in HongKong for about 18 months and I still remember my shock of landing in HK and not finding "General Tso's Chicken" anywhere :). The ignorant American in me then realized that Chinese food in HK (and this is not even mainland china) is so different. Then I learned that there is a specific type of Chinese food called Szechuan that is generally spicy which probably comes close but that is a small part of real chinese food. I could still be wrong in understanding all this but at some point, I stopped worrying and start enjoying the food :)
>What the Heck is Crab Rangoon Anyway?
Delicious, that's what it is.
Since the author mentioned Yakamein, it's also worth noting that Bourbon Chicken is named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans and is also another American Chinese dish that is native to the South.
Another interesting tidbit, from watching the General Tso's documentary, is that the Missouri family that invented Cashew Chicken still adamantly claims that McDonald's took their fried chicken chunks recipe to make their now famous McNuggets.
Why should anyone worry about 'authenticity' in food? Perhaps I'm very American in my view here, but my thought is that taste comes before history. Crab Rangoon, which I've interestingly never seen relabeled Crab Yangon, is a call back to the more interesting or enthusiastic past. I wish we had that kind of invention left in today's kitchens.
I think of it this way: immigrant cultures are their own culture, that should not be confused with their "parent" culture in their homeland.
Thus, Crab Rangoon is an authentic cuisine... of the American Chinese immigrant culture. As in, it was invented by "American Chinese" people—a particular people—and they can claim it as part of their (rather new-ish) cultural heritage.
As long as you make this distinction, the argument over whether something "is" authentic goes away. Everything is authentic. The question becomes: what is this-or-that food an authentic example of?