{"id":16145,"date":"2020-09-23T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=16145"},"modified":"2020-09-10T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T15:00:11","slug":"crispy-chinese-noodles-whats-in-those-wonton-strips-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2020\/09\/23\/crispy-chinese-noodles-whats-in-those-wonton-strips-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Crispy Chinese Noodles \u2014 What\u2019s in Those Wonton Strips Anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Abby Mudd, Jacqueline Tang, Adhi Muthukumar, and Simon\nBrown (VRG interns and volunteers)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever frequented an Asian eatery, you may have\nindulged in those delicious wonton strips that are often included with soups or\nchow mein, and are occasionally served as small bites. These deep fried, crispy\nnoodles have been a topic among the vegan community. We were recently asked by\na reader if the noodles were vegan and whether alternative healthier options\nexisted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     The answer varies,\nsince every Asian restaurant differs in their production or sourcing of these\nwonton strips. The strips typically include egg and may be cooked in animal\nfat. However, it is possible to make them without using animal products, and\none company, Wonton Food Inc., makes a vegan-friendly version<\/a> (which they\ncall \u2018All Natural\u2019), and these are available for restaurants to buy in bulk if\nthey choose.1<\/sup> We have also included some vegan recipes for making\nyour own wonton strips, as well as some healthier cooking methods.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     When ordering dishes\nthat are likely to include these strips (especially soups) but otherwise look\nvegan, it may be worth confirming directly with the restaurant whether they\ninclude these strips, and if so whether they include egg or have been cooked\nwithout animal fats. Activists may want to work on getting more local\nrestaurants who cater to vegans to either make their own crispy wonton strips\nusing only vegan-friendly ingredients or to order vegan-friendly crispy wonton\nstrips from Wonton Food Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     A lot of\nrestaurants in your area may have only non-vegan wonton strip\/chip options\nbecause they tend to order ingredients from suppliers. Many companies use eggs,\nespecially for packaged dry noodles, to help preserve texture and color. If\neggs are not used, the strips are often cooked in the same deep fryer as meat\nproducts. We contacted a number of Chinese or Asian Fusion restaurants which\nserve meat but also have vegetarian\/vegan options (6 restaurants in MD, 5 in\nKY, 1 in IN, 1 in TN).  All but one of\nthese either obtain their noodle strips from a distributor who use egg, or make\nthem directly in house using egg. Furthermore, most cooked them in the same\ndeep fryer as meat products. The all-vegan Asian restaurants we contacted (5 in\nNY) said they do not serve wonton strips. Just one restaurant with a sizeable\nvegetarian\/vegan menu, Mr Chan\nRestaurant in Pikesville MD<\/a>, confirmed both that they\nsell these strips (they include them with all of their soups), and that they\nare suitable for vegans. They stated that they make them from scratch (with\nflour) without egg.2<\/sup>  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     We also contacted\nsome of the largest chains about their policies on crispy wonton strips. Panda\nExpress told us that they do not sell Crispy Wonton Strips, but do sell Crispy\nNoodles in separate bags often displayed by the register: you can check the\ningredients on the bag for egg and other animal products. They also pointed\nout, however, that most of their menu is not suitable for vegans in any case.3\n<\/sup> Neither P.F. Chang\u2019s nor Pei Wei\nAsian Kitchen responded to requests for information, but both have allergens\nlists on their websites giving information about which dishes contain egg and\nother non-vegan ingredients (here<\/a>\nand here<\/a>).  In 2017, Pei Wei did talk with VRG<\/a> about\ntheir menu at the time, and said that their Edamame Hummus was not vegan\nspecifically because it included wonton chips, which included egg. However,\nthis dish no longer appears on their menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     If you are looking\nto enjoy these crispy wontons strips at home, try making them yourself! They\nare easy to make and suitable for any level of cooking experience. To start,\nyou can either make the vegan wonton wrappers homemade or pick up a vegan brand\nat the store, like Nasoya Wonton Wraps. The homemade option<\/a> uses just a few\ningredients (flour, warm water, salt, and cornstarch) and takes about 30\nminutes to make. After you purchase or make the wrappers, you should cut them\ninto smaller pieces and prepare to either bake or fry your wrappers. If you\nwant to bake the wrappers<\/a>, add some cooking\nspray and seasoning of your choice and place this into an oven preheated to 400\nFahrenheit for 6-8 minutes or until brown. This method will be slightly\nhealthier than frying since it uses less oil. You can also fry the wrappers<\/a> on a pan with any\ntype of oil. Fry them until they are crispy brown<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Xiaojing Zhou, the R&D\/QA manager of Wonton Food Inc.,\nconfirmed by email on 7\/1\/2020 that the \u2018all natural\u2019 wonton strips are vegan,\nand contain only wheat flour, Non-GMO canola oil, and salt. On 08\/17\/2020 they\nconfirmed that while they continue to make efforts to expand their business in\n\u2018all natural\u2019 products into the mainstream foodservice marketplace, most of\ntheir \u2018all natural\u2019 products are currently sold as a component in salad kits\nlike one might see at local grocery stores rather than to restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Phone call to (410) 484-11000<\/a>, 08\/16\/2020. Also asked another time while picking up a takeout order. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Email from Panda Guest Care, 08\/04\/2020, Reference #\n1171766.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other\npublications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide\npersonal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified\nhealth professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from\ncompany statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info\ncan change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use\nyour best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do\nfurther research or confirmation on your own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may also be interested in these sources of ingredients,\nand if vegetarian or vegan. See: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/ingredients\/index.php<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To support VRG research, donate at www.vrg.org\/donate<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Abby Mudd, Jacqueline Tang, Adhi Muthukumar, and Simon Brown (VRG interns and volunteers) If you\u2019ve ever frequented an Asian eatery, you may have indulged in those delicious wonton strips that are often included with soups or chow mein, and are occasionally served as small bites. These deep fried, crispy noodles have been a topic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16147,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16145\/revisions\/16147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}