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?

Cholula, you know too much!!! I made many, many $$$ from the egg rolls that my company makes for J-i-t-B! Every time customers like kingalien eat my egg rolls, I throw a thicker steak on my barbie! God Bless the USA and Free Enterprise... I'm off to Prague tomorrow with the family for a couple weeks of R & R. I plan to tip a glass of Pilsner Urquell to Toast in absentia all those consumers who scarf up my products and allow me to own an apartment in Sydney, travel extensively, pay college tuition in one payment and just plain live the good life! Hell... They can even douse the stuff I make in Cholula Hot Sauce if it causes them to consume more! :cool:

I've had those before!!
 

My father was the director of the graduate college at the local university....when we were kids, he was always bringing home sweets one of his students or colleagues brought back from visits abroad....Thanks for the memory!

Since we are all over the map here...

* Love the J-i-t-B egg rolls... about as good as a fast-food egg roll can get. ^

* Speaking of Asian egg desserts, what about egg custard tarts? (I've dragged many a FTer around various street vendor carts around Hong Kong and Macau in search of the best fresh tart.)

* What is the whole convention on fried vs. non-fried spring rolls? Is it cultural?

For those travelling to Southern Wisconsin, there is a local restaurant in a northern suburb of Milwaukee (called Fox Point) called Port China.

I grew up there, and still dream about the egg rolls they serve. Giant, filled with pork and vegetables, fried perfectly, and I am pretty sure made with a bit of peanut butter for flavor/texture.

God, I'm hungry now.

Here in LA, my job is to enrich those who make money from the jitb eggrolls as often as possible. Love those 5 packs!

Now that we know the difference between spring rolls and egg rolls, what defines / differentiates a Summer Roll?

Reason I like the egg rolls is that we made similar ones back home in the east when I was a kid....I think you stole the recipe :D so about sharing that Sydney apt...jk.

Egg tarts are great especially when fresh. The Asian bakeries here have two kinds, the regular flaky crust kind and another called Portugese egg tart which has what seems like a normal pie crust.
As for the non-fried rolls, mostly served in Vietnamese restaurants which also serve the traditional fried spring rolls - these tend to have mostly meat compared with the Chinese type that have veggies only or veggie and meat.

My question is: does anyone actually consume the accompanying mustard?

Yes! Mixed with a little soy sauce (or shoyu as we call it in HI). To make my own hot mustard at home I just reconstitute a little Coleman's dry mustard. :)

I love the vietnamese imperial rolls(deep fried)so great when you have all of these textures and tempatures going on in one bite!The crunch of the rice paper,the heat of the filling,the coolness of the lettuce,the smoothness of the sauce-oh I think I just decided what to have for dinner!

No. No. It is plum sauce for me and my egg/spring roll

Egg Tarts, Rolls, etc
 

On Topic: I much prefer the thicker wrapper of the egg roll vice the translucent, flakier spring roll. My half-Hawaiian, half-Chinese wife thinks I'm nuts.

Some of the best egg tarts I found living three years in Hong Kong were, interestingly enough, made by Kentucky Fried Chicken. The recipe, I'm told, was one of the original great ones from a chef in Macao who sold it to KFC. Mmmm. Good. And I don't really like egg tarts! ^

Absolutely and the hotter the better. In fact the "hot" mustard that comes with egg rolls is usually lame as it loses strength the longer it sits.
I usually make my own hot mustard with Coleman's Dry Mustard and beer...:).

.....

I've heard that from so many current/former Hong Kong residents that I always make KFC one of my "tour de egg tart" stops.

The best egg tart I ever had was consumed standing on a street corner in Macau... they had a store that sold all sorts of jerky and an old glass case that kept the fresh tarts turning under a hot light out on the sidewalk. Mmmmmmmmm....

I was on my way home from Boaz AL yesterday and passed through Gadsden around lunch time. I saw a sign for an eggroll business and had to stop. I ordered the daily special which was 3 eggrolls and a can of soda for $5.99. I picked 2 "original" and one "chicken". I was shocked at the ingredients of both. The "original" was hamburger, cabbage and CHEESE. The "chicken" was chunks of white chicken meat in a green curry sauce. I'll have to stop by again and get more details, but this was weird. Something about the name and the look of the lady running things said "Korean", but I'm not sure. Anyone else come across unexpected eggroll ingredients?

Yes, the vomit in my mouth that spilled out into an eggroll wrapper when I read your post!

What a great thread :cool:

I love Egg Rolls and yes, a little shoyu & hot mustard is great to dip in...

Spring Rolls (Fresh or Fried) are great as well...

There's a Thai place in ANC that makes "Angel Wings"... they debone a chicken wing and stuff it with rice vermicelli noodles, pork, and some other things...

Its stuffed inside the wing and then fried- mmm... a wonton/eggroll/springroll hybrid

summer rolls aren't fried.

Ah, this isn't what I thought! I was expecting to find mouthwatering accounts of morning rolls with poached egg...

Mmm...

Dear god, yes! That is the reason I eat spring rolls - the hot mustard! :)

Why did I start to read this thread? It is morning here and I REALLY want a spring roll with extra mustard!

:cool: We have a local place near where I work called New Star in Elmwood Park, IL, that has the best egg rolls I have ever tasted.
Same as the ones you describe from Port China. Big, moist, meaty and a touch of peanut butter flavor.

And I try Chinese restaurants in every city that I visit. I'll need to travel North to Fox Point soon too! :D

Oh, yes! But it has to be the pale yellow kind that sets your nostrils on fire if you’re not careful.

The same throughout China. I've never seen in China what is commonly referred to as an "egg roll" in U.S. western-style Chinese restaurants, i.e., that thick cylinder of deep fried, bubbly dough surrounding an amorphous mass of unidentifiable meat and vegetables. I have, however, enjoyed true Chinese-style spring rolls with the same insanely hot mustard that many of the western-style U.S. Chinese restaurants serve. Mmmmm -- I love that mustard!

The Chinese kind are called, I believe, "dan to" and are my favorites. The best ones are small and bite-sized and served hot from whatever they are cooked in. Yummy!