Egg Roll Survey
 

I'm feeling a little curious here. Most every Chinese restaurant I've been to in Texas makes egg rolls with a spring roll wrapper and then deep fries that. Growing up in the Midwest and East coast, I knew an egg roll as being wrapped in a wonton wrapper and then deep fried. Crunchy and chewy all at once. These spring rolls have no tooth to them, but all the people here look at me like I'm the crazy one.

Help me out, what is an egg roll wrapped in and where do you live?

I used to be Director of Sales and Marketing of a U.S. owned and based food manufacturing company that had a Division that manufactured and sold millions of egg rolls and spring rolls to both retail (supermarket) and foodservice venues.

The primary difference between the wrappers of each is the thickness of the wrapper and the diameter of the roll. Spring rolls usually don't weigh more than an ounce... Egg rolls are primarily 3 ounces in weight. Both wrappers are basically made from eggs, flour, oil and salt. There are numerous variations that may include rice flour, etc. Many restaurants purchase wrappers already made and sold in bulk, either frozen or refrigerated, then fill them with their own fillings and usually fry. Frying is preferably done in peanut oil, though good grade oils that can handle high heat are also used.

As I recollect, the biggest selling spring roll was usually a vegetarian roll and the biggest selling egg rolls were usually chicken, with pork a close second.

My understanding is that the difference between a Spring Roll and an Egg Roll is that either one can have any filling, but a "true" egg roll will have egg as part of the ingredients.....usually scrambled egg.

Many Asian cultures have different forms of wrappers and things that they make with them. One common would be Lumpia (Fillipino). If it is Shanghai (sp?) style, then they are usually not fried. I've also seen some of the new trendy places do things like wrap a shrimp in the wrapper with the tail sticking out, calling it wrapped shrimp.

What a great topic!! The best Spring roll of my life was 25 years ago at the Oriental Bangkok after a trip halfway around the world. It was midnight, we were starving and the rolls were perfect. Thanks for starting this thread. ^

Hey...I was the National Sales Manager and, later, Director of Marketing for the largest Egg Roll....and Chinese Food manufacturer....in the US.
Perhaps we should share PM's to see if we were competitors or business associates?? :)

The difference between an Egg Roll and a Spring Roll...at least in my experience....was primarily the wrapper. An Egg Roll had a thicker, opaque wrapper. A Spring Roll had a thin, almost transparent wrapper. And, as prspad states, a Spring Roll is traditionally very small....usually an ounce or so.
The Egg Roll got it's name not from the ingredients but from the egg wash that is used to seal the wrapper when it's hand-rolled.

a different egg roll . . .
 

I would like to throw in my 2 cents here. In Asia, the literal translation of 'egg roll' is actually a dessert. A sweet, flaky, hollow tube, made of flour, egg and sugar, ranges from 1 - 5 inches long. See pic here or here. You can probably find them in Asian malls and Asian bakeries.

As an American now living near London, I find the food comparisons a lot of fun. I don't remember ever seeing something here called an 'egg roll.' Despite size, they all seem to be 'spring rolls.' One of the best I've eaten here was from the Tesco supermarket chain. They have the biggest hunks of chicken I've ever seen in a roll of any nomenclature.. truly yummy.

In Hong Kong, it's flashed fried with a very thin spring roll wrapper. The wrapper is very crunchy, and not hard. Also, the size is about 1/3 of what I see in US.

That would be cool. Were you?

In Chihuahua there is/was(?) a restaurant called Shanghai, owned by the Wong family, and they had the best rolls.

They were huge, filled with bean sprouts, celery, beef, chicken and pork.

It was almost like they had deep fried chop suey into a roll.

So unhealthy, but sooo good......

:)

After trading PM's, it turns out we were competitors of sorts but that's cool as we've both moved on to bigger and better things.

Speaking of "Cool," ElmhurstNick... At one time I used to work for Ernie the Elf when the company was owned by United Biscuits, the UK company and the Hdqtrs then was in Elmhurst... That particular company has morphed through a few owners, now part of Kellogg's!

Here in LAX where Asian restaurants are aplenty, spring and egg rolls are consistently along what Cholula described, that is, defined by the type of wrapper. I personally rather have an egg roll than a spring roll as the latter tends to be more greasy or maybe the egg roll wrapper just soaks up the oil more efficiently :D . I might get some grief about this but one of the better egg rolls are the ones served at Jack-in-the-Box, a fast food chain in the States.

I agree that most of the Spring Rolls I've had have been exceptionally greasy. I think it's that rice paper skin that sucks up the grease.
prspad....didn't your ex-company have the contract with Jack-in-the-Box for their egg rolls?