Author: John Fladd

These are a sweet take on crab rangoons, only not crabby, and a little Polynesian.

• 1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
• 1 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
• ¼ cup (55 g) sugar
• Zest of 1 lemon (about 8 g)
• 3 ounces (85 g) drained, crushed pineapple – depending on how well you’ve drained it, the whims of the kitchen gods, and the phases of the moon, this will be about 1/3 cup
• 3 ounces (85 g) drained, canned, chopped mango – same
• 1 teaspoon dehydrated lemon juice powder (optional) – this will add a little extra zing to the wonton filling without watering it out and making it Gloopy (the eighth dwarf who the others rarely talk about)
• 30 or so wonton wrappers – you can usually find these with egg roll wrappers in the produce section of your supermarket, next to the tofu
• Vegetable oil for frying

Open the canned fruit and strain it with a fine-mesh strainer. Save the juice for a cocktail later, maybe something with dark rum and crushed ice.

With an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest and black pepper until it is fluffy — two or three minutes. Using a spoon or a silicone spatula, stir the fruit into the mix gently, by hand. Put the bowl into your refrigerator to chill for half an hour or so — long enough to do the dishes and clean up the kitchen a little.

Upon returning to your kitchen, open up the package of wonton wrappers and remove about half of them. They will be small, pale squares of dough, 2 or 3 inches on each side. Lay one flat on the counter in front of you. Dip a finger in a bowl of water, and run it along two adjacent edges of the wrapper to make the edges a little sticky. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of the now-cool cream cheese mixture into the center of the wrapper. Fold the non-sticky corner over the mixture, onto its sticky counterpart, to make a triangle. Seal the edges and set it aside on a plate.

Now, do that 25 more times. As you finish six or seven triangles, move them to a plate in the refrigerator until you are ready to fry them — again, trying to avoid gloopiness. You will get faster and neater at this as you go along.

Put 2 or 3 inches of vegetable oil into a medium-sized saucepan, and heat it over low heat to 350°F.

Fry two or three triangles at a time, flipping them over with a slotted spoon when the first side has cooked to a golden-brown color, about a minute and a half, and finish them off on the other side. When both sides are brown and a little blistered, use the slotted spoon to transfer them to paper towels or newspaper to drain, then wait for the oil to come back up to 350°F, and fry the next batch.

These are best hot out of the fryer, but if it’s very humid and you have to wait a few minutes to serve them, they might lose their crunch. Don’t panic. Your air-fryer has been waiting for this Moment Of Destiny.

Serve these, hot and crispy, with rainbow sherbet. A glass of prosecco would not go amiss, either.

Featured photo: Pineapple Rangoons. Photo by John Fladd.

Big flavor to go with your crunchy eats

According to Dawn Aurora Hunt, the owner and product developer of Cucina Aurora Kitchen Witchery in Salem, choosing or making a dip is a bit of a balancing act. She is proud of the dip mixes her company makes, and for her, good dips come from balancing the qualities of the ingredients.

“The flavors,” she said, “the balance of texture and flavor, the salt, the crunch, a little sweetness, all of that to me plays into a good dip. And if I’m going to serve a dip, it can be hot, it can be cold, but it’s always about the balance.”

“My connection to dip is like everybody’s connection,” she said. Who doesn’t love chips and dip? We all grew up on chips and dip and and for me party food is intrinsic to the connection between people. When we sit down at a party or we’re at a gathering or going into the summer, it’s a barbecue or it’s a cookout and there’s always a bowl of chips and either there’s guacamole or onion dip — you know, something fun. It’s something everybody looks forward to.”

So how do you get there?

“For me,” Hunt said after a moment’s thought, “what makes a good dip is the flavor profile and what it’s going to be mixed with. I’m a big texture person. If I’ve got a salty chip, then I want some kind of a sweetness to my dip. If I have a plain cracker, then I want a really bold flavor in my dip. If I’ve got a veggie, I want something really fresh that’s going to complement that, right? Because nobody’s eating dip with a spoon. I mean you could for sure — you absolutely could — but the dip is one half of a great combination. So when choosing a dip, you want to always think about what you’re going to serve it with. And sometimes you might do the opposite and go, ‘Gee, I have this bag of chips or I have all these baby carrots in my fridge that nobody ate. What would go well with that? How can we turn that into something more than it is?’ You can make a dip and now you have a fun, healthy snack instead of just a carrot.”

There are familiar, comfortable dips, Hunt said — sour cream-based ones, or guacamole — but there are whole families of dips that don’t always spring to mind as quickly.

“I love Middle Eastern types of bean dips,” she said. “I also think that we can’t discount things that wouldn’t be, that we wouldn’t think of as traditional dip, like a pico de gallo salsa, which is not cooked down. It’s almost more of a chunky salad. Or cowboy caviar — it’s made with beans and corn and chopped up peppers and you can eat it with corn chips or you could put it on top of something, or you can eat it with a spoon. I would consider that a dip as well.”

Then, Hunt pointed out, there are dip-adjacent sauces that are not actual dips but could be. “You could use chimichurri or pesto or something like that,” she said, “and put it in a dip. If you mixed that chimichurri with refried beans or something like that, and made a bean dip out of it, that could be really good.”

Featured photo: Veggie Dill Dip & Seasoning. Courtesy photo.

News from the local food scene

• New cafe: Two Moons Coffee & Curiosities, at 155 Dow St., Manchester, had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday. The entrance to the new cafe is next to Fratello’s Restaurant. It shares space with the South of the 6 Salon and Humble Warrior Power Yoga. The cafe serves a variety of teas, coffee drinks and smoothies.

• Vegan chef awards: The 2025 Manchester Vegan Chef Challenge has wrapped up, and chefs were presented awards on Tuesday, June 10, at a private awards ceremony. Twelve competing restaurants committed to offering one or more vegan main course dishes on their menus for the month of June and were voted on by more than 300 Manchester customers. First place went to Stashbox (866 Elm St., Manchester, 606-8109, stashboxnh.com) for its overall menu, second place went to Campo Enoteca (969 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0256, campoenoteca.com) for its overall menu, and Industry East (28 Hanover St., Manchester, 232-6940, industryeastbar.com) took honors for the Best Fusion Dish.

• Local farmers party: Farm-a-Q, a celebration of local farmers, chefs and brewers, returns to Tuckaway Farm (36 Captain Smith Emerson Road, Lee) on Sunday, June 29, from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets start at $20. The event is billed as family-friendly and supports the Heritage Harvest Project, whose mission is to promote regional heritage foods and agricultural diversity among farmers, chefs and local communities. See “Farm-a-Q” on eventbrite to purchase tickets.

• Another T-Bones: Ground has been broken in Hudson for a new T-Bones Great American Eatery. The latest branch in the New Hampshire-based casual dining chain is expected to open in the spring of 2026 at 256 Lowell Road in Hudson.

• Bye, Fridays: TGI Fridays has closed its Manchester location on South Willow Street, near the Mall of New Hampshire. The chain declared bankruptcy last year and previously closed its Amherst location.

• Brews: Mel’s Funway Park Sip & Sun Brewfest will be Saturday, June 28, 1 to 4 p.m. (noon admission for VIP ticketholders) at the Litchfield park. The fest will feature dozens of brewers and beverage purveyors offering samples as well as music and food trucks. See melsfunwaypark.com for ticket options.

It has always fascinated me how often we describe our senses by referencing other senses:

“He’s wearing a loud shirt.”

“That’s a sharp cheddar.”

“He hit the ground with a dull thud.”

So I think it’s entirely reasonable to think of different sorts of alcohol as musical instruments. Gin is a piano, infinitely adaptable — sophisticated as a Cole Porter gin and tonic, or loud and in your face like the barrelhouse blues of a Corpse Reviver No. 2. Whiskeys are brassy, from the trumpet of a Kentucky whiskey to the deeper notes of a scotch trombone. Vodka is a woodwind, sometimes like a piccolo playing noticeably in the front like birdsong, and at other times an oboe that blends inconspicuously into the background. Tequila is a blues harmonica.

And then there’s the accordion that is Midori.

It’s fun. Pretty much everyone likes it. But it gets no respect whatsoever. If we think of this Japanese melon liqueur at all, it’s in the context of disco-era stunt drinks. But it has real chops and can bring deep, fruity resonance to a cocktail or a highball, like a zydeco cover of “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’.”

• 1 ½ ounces Midori melon liqueur
• 1 ounce vodka
• ½ ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
• ½ ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
• Plain seltzer
• 1 ounce Ancho Reyes chili pepper liqueur, to float

Fill a tall glass with crushed ice.

Combine Midori, vodka, lime and lemon juices over ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake until combined, then strain over the crushed ice in the glass.

Top with seltzer and stir gently.

Gently pour the chili liqueur over the back of a large spoon, to float on the surface of the drink.

Drink with a straw while listening to “Vienna” by Billy Joel and marvel at how you never noticed that it has a 17-second accordion solo two thirds of the way through the song.

Because this drink is fizzy and neon green, you’ll expect it to be pretty sweet. In fact the Midori shows a surprising amount of restraint. This is a faintly citrusy, deeply refreshing, tall drink to serve at a garden party or a party after you’ve done some gardening.

Featured photo: Midori Sour Highball. Photo by John Fladd.