This recipe for Chinese Buffet Style Crab brings together 1 (16 ounce) package imitation crabmeat (I like flake or chunk style, But any style will do), 1/4 cup mayonnaise in a practical dish for home cooking. It takes about 18 min to prepare and cook. It makes approximately 4 servings.
The Los Angeles Times published this recipe in 1979, back when chinese chicken salads were all the rage. I still make this recipe but usually add some manderin orange segements on top.
This is my #1 favorite Chinese dish and it has taken me a few years to duplicate the restaurant recipes and then enhanced to my liking. This origins of this recipe comes from the Lobster Cantonese style dish (with Lobster Sauce and a Chinese-American creation) which was popular in Cantonese restaurants in North America around 1950 or so years ago. Then another variation was created using shrimp and this dish was called Shrimp in Lobster Sauce (which uses the same sauce as the Lobster Cantonese dish but no lobster meat is used). These basic recipes contained a white type of sauce and with some green peas and ground pork added. After this still another variation was created and this time using salted fermented black beans in a dark soy sauce and either Lobster or Shrimp was used. Further, for this recipe (and the other above dishes) getting the eggs to “set” on top of the sauce was a challenge since most home ranges can not generate a very high heat (when using a wok) for cooking. However, I was successful in getting the eggs to “Set” properly by using heated sesame oil. That is, getting the eggs to “set” by partially cooking them (slightly runny eggs) and not incorporated them completely into the sauce.
A take-off of the well known Cantonese egg fu yung and local to the St. Louis area, this can now be found nationwide, in the local chop suey houses and Chinese express type restaurants. Surprisingly, the sandwich has nothing to do with St. Paul and why the sandwich is named that is unclear. But for anyone growing up in the St. Louis area might find this sandwich to be a happy memory, and a recipe almost lost to the culinary community.
Your Kitchen Concierge
Recipe finder and budget meal ideas