Pork And Shrimp Wontons Are At The Top Of Andrew Zimmern's Favorite Food List

Andrew Zimmern, perhaps best known for his spectacularly popular Travel Channel Show "Bizarre Foods" has become one of the internet's favorite personalities. Between Instagram-hosted cooking lessons during the COVID-19 lockdowns, and new show on the Magnolia Network "Family Dinner," where he dines with regular American families from all sorts of national, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds, there's plenty to love about him. He also offers a unique perspective on food around the world and in the United States, often through the lens of politics, class, and oppression (not entirely unlike the late Anthony Bourdain), but also a deep enthusiasm for good eats, no matter how seemingly exotic or unpretentious they are. 

Recently on Twitter, Zimmern shared one of his most beloved recipes, and you don't need to travel the world over for it. No, the dish he calls "one of my favorite foods in the whole world," can be found on any dim sum or Chinese-American menu — the much-beloved shrimp and pork wonton. 

Andrew Zimmern was kind enough to link to his own pork and shrimp wonton recipe on his website in the tweet. It calls for minced shrimp and pork, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, white pepper powder, ginger, and garlic chives, and of course wonton skins. If you don't have white pepper, use black, but note that there will be additional spice and less of an earthy taste (via NDTV), and spring onions will also work in place of garlic chives. After refrigerating the mixture, use it fill and fold the wonton skins, toss them in boiling water, and remove them once they float to the top of the pot. 

To add some additional bite to the simple dish, Zimmern recommends a generous topping of chili crisp. He writes, "Simple, delicious pork and shrimp wontons drizzled with chile crisp ... it honestly doesn't get much better than that." Sriracha or gochujang is also a nice way to kick up the heat.