Egg Rolls in America

[eatingwitheddie]

Who knows where they put peanut butter in their egg rolls?

Do you know why some restaurnats can sell 2 egg rolls (1 order) for more than $30 bucks?

Looking for grass roots egg roll research/stories/anecdotes/best of their kind reputations. PLEASE!

[Stone]

In NY, I grew up with fat egg rolls in a "pastry" crust. They're filled with chopped cabbagey stuff, bits of minced roast pork and maybe some small shrimp. Loved 'em.

In other cities, the egg rolls are thinner (like a tube of nickels), with a thin, almost rice paper wrapper. The insides are not chopped as much, usually with bean sprouts (which I don't like). They tend to be much greasier (although the "NY" style can also be very greasy).

I miss the NY style.

I also miss duck sauce. In SF, when you get any sauce with an egg roll, it's a thin, bright red sweet sauce.

[Jason Perlow]

30 bucks for a order of egg rolls? Eddie, there had better be truffle shavings or Russian Ocetra caviar in those suckers.

[Jinmyo]

Do we mean egg rolls as distinct from spring rolls? Or spring rolls also? Dstone's post made me think of the first he cited as egg rolls and the others as spring rolls.

I'm so confused.

[Louisa Chu]

Who knows where they put peanut butter in their egg rolls?

These days, only at home. But so funny that you should ask because I was just telling a friend about the old-school egg rolls we used to make at my uncle's chop suey joint on the Northwest side of Chicago. His secret ingredients included not only the peanut butter - but chicken skin too. He was a man whose favourite work lunch was a huge platter of stirfried chicken butts on rice - out of love and respect we used to save them all for him. I used to love and dread egg roll making days - we usually cleaned the deep fryer oil that day too so it was all the freshly rolled fried in clean oil egg rolls you could eat but after the thousandth one you've rolled who cares. But no more peanut butter or chicken skin - not after tastes and health concerns started changing.

Do you know why some restaurnats can sell 2 egg rolls (1 order) for more than $30 bucks?

No, why - and where? But they gotta be to bok gwai.

[Timo]

interesting topic... care to explain the motive for collecting eggroll info?

One of my friends insists on "playing the flute" whenever eating eggrolls. Anyone heard of this "practice"? It consists of poking holes along the long side of the eggroll with a chopstick and then biting off the top of the roll and blowing into it. Personally, I've never "played the flute", but it is supposed to cool off the filling of the roll. It also causes everyone else at the table lose their appetites for eggrolls - meaning more eggrolls for whoever has played the flute.

[Stone]

Do we mean egg rolls as distinct from spring rolls? Or spring rolls also? Dstone's post made me think of the first he cited as egg rolls and the others as spring rolls.

I'm so confused.

Yes, the second ones I discussed are called spring rolls in NY (and perhaps elsewhere). They are called egg rolls in SF. I've yet to find anything in SF similar to the egg rolls in NY.

[Stone]

interesting topic... care to explain the motive for collecting eggroll info?

One of my friends insists on "playing the flute" whenever eating eggrolls. Anyone heard of this "practice"? It consists of poking holes along the long side of the eggroll with a chopstick and then biting off the top of the roll and blowing into it. Personally, I've never "played the flute", but it is supposed to cool off the filling of the roll. It also causes everyone else at the table lose their appetites for eggrolls - meaning more eggrolls for whoever has played the flute.

I do this with twizzlers. Sometimes I can play quite the tune.

[Fat Guy]

When I was a kid I used to eat one and sometimes two eggrolls on the walk home from picking up my family's Chinese-food dinner at Empire Szechuan Columbus. (This was approximately a thrice-weekly occurrence.) The coordinator of takeout -- a former calculus professor from Taiwan -- always knew to include this double-secret order, separately bagged, tagged, billed, and paid for in quarters from my change crock, when my parents would call in what they thought was the whole order. This would take the edge off my appetite, allowing me to eat a not-all-that-much-more-than-normal-seeming quantity of food when I joined the rest of the family at the table.

Mind you, I lived in the apartment building on the southwest corner of 69th and Columbus. Empire Szechuan was (and still is) on the east side of Columbus approximately half way between 69th and 68th. I had maybe 100 footsteps and possibly a red light during which consume my secret booty. I grew quite adept at using a couple of chopsticks to create a reservoir inside the eggroll in which I placed soy sauce, duck sauce, and hot chili oil such that portability didn't have to come at the expense of condiments.

[anil]

..... Empire Szechuan was (and still is) on the east side of Columbus approximately half way between 69th and 68th. .......

Still there taking care of the UWSiders

[Fat Guy]

Though a couple of years ago the restaurant became part of the sushi manifest gastronomy trend and renamed itself Empire Szechuan Kyoto.

[Fat Guy]

Note there is another egg roll thread here.

Anybody who has been to Asia: Have you ever seen an egg roll there? Or is this purely a Chinese-American thing?

Who serves the best egg roll you've ever eaten?

[Bux]

Anybody who has been to Asia: Have you ever seen an egg roll there? Or is this purely a Chinese-American thing?

You mean the meat balls and spaghetti of Chinese-American cuisine?

[Jinmyo]

I had egg rolls in Beijing. But filled with lamb and mushroom. Street vendor.

[Jason Perlow]

I grew up on egg rolls from Queens and they don't make 'em like they made 'em anymore.

For starters, I distinctly remember egg rolls having BOTH small shrimps (reconstiuted dried?) in them as well as roast pork in it (which arguably also tasted different back then). And I think as a general rule, Egg Rolls and a lot of other chinese food back in the day tasted better before NYC started to really crack down on health laws -- I think the oil used 25-30 years ago was re-used more often which imparted a different flavor to them. And they were greasier and I liked them that way.

Any chinese restaurant on Union Turnpike in Flushing, Fresh Meadows or Hollis Hills 25 years ago. A place like King Yum, which is still the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in Queens (1953). Thats where the best egg roll was.

Maybe its time for a long overdue visit to the old neighborhood.

[Fat Guy]

Another question for the group:

What defines a great egg roll?

[Jason Perlow]

Should be dense and chewy, and should have a lot of finely chopped peices of pork or small shrimps in it. Outer skin should be crispy and not too doughy, and it should be a dark golden brown. The finely chopped chinese cabbage should have the flavor of the pork and shrimp in it, and the egg roll should be just greasy enough to impart the flavors of other egg rolls fried in that fryer but not too greasy.

[torakris]

Anybody who has been to Asia: Have you ever seen an egg roll there? Or is this purely a Chinese-American thing?

In neither Japan nor Hong Kong have I seen what I grew up with as an egg roll.

The ones over here are the thin very crispy ones referred to as spring rolls or harumaki in Japanese.

Haru=spring maki=roll

Every now and then I get a craving for one of those big thick ones with unidentifiable fillings dipped into that gloppy sweet and sour sauce.

I had such a craving for these while I was pregnant with #3 that I tried on numerous attempts to imatate that red glop and to no avail.

[seawakim]

One of my friends insists on "playing the flute" whenever eating eggrolls. Anyone heard of this "practice"? It consists of poking holes along the long side of the eggroll with a chopstick and then biting off the top of the roll and blowing into it. Personally, I've never "played the flute", but it is supposed to cool off the filling of the roll. It also causes everyone else at the table lose their appetites for eggrolls - meaning more eggrolls for whoever has played the flute.

I love that idea and will try it next time I eat egg rolls.

Best egg roll I ever had contained lobster meat, cream cheese, chives, chili flakes and some other interesting ingredients that don't come to mind at this hour.

[eatingwitheddie]

The finely chopped chinese cabbage

FYI

This is typically not Chinese cabbage but regular cabbage. It's really an essential part of the 'egg roll' filling flavor.

[eatingwitheddie]

Anybody who has been to Asia: Have you ever seen an egg roll there? Or is this purely a Chinese-American thing?

In neither Japan nor Hong Kong have I seen what I grew up with as an egg roll.

The ones over here are the thin very crispy ones referred to as spring rolls or harumaki in Japanese.

Haru=spring maki=roll

Every now and then I get a craving for one of those big thick ones with unidentifiable fillings dipped into that gloppy sweet and sour sauce.

I had such a craving for these while I was pregnant with #3 that I tried on numerous attempts to imatate that red glop and to no avail.

Where did you grow up? The red glop recipe is different in different parts of the country/world.

[eatingwitheddie]

I grew up on egg rolls from Queens and they don't make 'em like they made 'em anymore.

A place like King Yum, which is still the oldest operating Chinese restaurant in Queens (1953). Thats where the best egg roll was.

Maybe its time for a long overdue visit to the old neighborhood.

Indeed King Yum stills exist and thrives from what I understand. It is really a great example of the Chinese-American restaurant that has survived from another era. I think it would be great fun to check out their food, not just their egg rolls.

I know they were recently running a Chinese New Year's menu - heard it advertised on the radio.

[Jinmyo]

Hm. I remember trying red glop around 40 years ago and not liking it at all.

What is it, Ed?

[eatingwitheddie]

I distinctly remember egg rolls having BOTH small shrimps (reconstiuted dried?) in them as well as roast pork in it (which arguably also tasted different back then).

Good quality egg rolls have traditionally had both small shrimps (not dried ones just small ones) and roast pork. As money/marketing/variety/eating habit considerations crept into the marketplace we began seeing shrimp rolls and egg rolls. The difference was simply that the shrimp rolls had shrimp and no pork and usually cost a little more, and the egg rolls often had pork and no shrimp. My local take-out, Szechuan Delight on Park Slopes' 7th Avenue, has both shrimp and pork in theirs. When freshly prepared they can be quite good.

One change that I have noticed is that rather than using chopped roast pork many restaurants now use flavored coarsely ground pork that has been colored to resemble roast pork. This can taste quite good but it is a a lttle less sophisticated and tasty than using real roast pork.

[eatingwitheddie]

Do you know why some restaurnats can sell 2 egg rolls (1 order) for more than $30 bucks?

No, why - and where? But they gotta be to bok gwai.

Lobster Rolls at New York's Bill Hong's on E. 56th Street sell for close to $50/order. Regular Egg Roll skins filled with fresh lobster meat and vegetables.