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The egg roll is a variety of deep-fried appetizer served in American Chinese restaurants. It is a cylindrical, savory roll with shredded cabbage, chopped meat, or other fillings inside a thickly-wrapped wheat flour skin, which is fried in hot oil.[1] The dish is served warm, and is usually eaten with the fingers, dipped in duck sauce, soy sauce, plum sauce, or hot mustard,[2] often from a cellophane packet.[3] Egg rolls are a ubiquitous feature of American Chinese cuisine.
 Freshly fried egg roll with rough, bubbly outer skin | |
| Type | Chinese-American cuisine |
|---|---|
| Course | Hors d'oeuvre or side dish |
| Place of origin | United States |
| Created by | Undetermined. General belief is in New York City in the 1930s. Henry Low included an egg roll recipe in his 1938 book Cook at Home in Chinese. |
| Main ingredients | Wheat pastry skin, cabbage, pork (or other meat) |
| Egg roll | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 蛋卷 | ||||||||||||||||
| Literal meaning | "egg roll" | ||||||||||||||||
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The origins of the egg roll are unclear and remain disputed. Egg rolls are very similar to, but distinct from, the spring rolls served in mainland China, and were first seen in the early 20th century in the United States.
Andrew Coe, author of Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States, has stated that the modern American egg roll was probably invented at a Chinese restaurant in New York City in the early 1930s, by one of two chefs who both later claimed credit for the creation: Lung Fong of Lung Fong's, or Henry Low of Port Arthur. According to Coe, Low's recipe, printed in a 1938 cookbook, Cook at Home in Chinese, included "bamboo shoots, roast pork, shrimp, scallions, water chestnuts, salt, MSG, sugar, palm oil, and pepper," but notably did not include cabbage, which is the main filling ingredient in modern egg rolls.[4]
Despite the name, egg rolls do not typically contain egg in the filling.[5] In addition to its disputed origin, it is unclear how the word "egg" appeared in the name, since the predominant flavor in American egg rolls is cabbage, not eggs. A 1979 article in The Washington Post speculated two possible theories: 1) that the word for "egg" in Chinese, (蛋, Mandarin:dàn, Cantonese:daan6), sounded similar to the word for "spring", (春, Mandarin:chūn, Cantonese:ceon1), and 2) that southern Chinese chefs relied on using eggs when trying to make thin wrapper skin from flour and water.[6] Another possible origin of the name is from a recipe for "egg roll" (also labeled as "dan gun") in the 1917 cookbook The Chinese Cook Book by Shiu Wong Chan. This recipe called for meat and vegetables rolled inside a layer of fried egg rather than a flour-based wrapper. [7]
Nom Wah Tea Parlor in New York City claims the oldest or original egg roll. The restaurant has been in operation since 1920 and states they have been making their very large egg rolls using a thin omelette or 'egg crêpe' wrapper since 1929 (unlike modern variations which use a wheat dough wrapper). [8]
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While there are many types of spring rolls native to East Asia and available in authentic Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese restaurants in the United States,[9] American egg rolls are distinctive.[10] A typical "New York–style" egg roll measures approximately two inches in diameter by six inches in length, with a thick, chewy, crispy, bumpy exterior skin.[11] Egg rolls, like other Americanized Chinese food specialties,[12] may contain vegetable cultivars and flavor profiles that are not common in China,[13] including broccoli.
Restaurants that serve egg rolls occasionally also offer spring rolls as a separate menu option, and these spring rolls may be served with a cold filling wrapped in Banh trang rice paper wrappers (particularly at Vietnamese restaurants that serve both egg rolls and spring rolls as appetizers), or fried, as seen in some Thai and Chinese eateries. When fried, spring rolls served in Asian restaurants in the United States usually have a smaller diameter and a lighter, crispier skin made out of thinner sheets of wheat or rice dough.[14][15][16]
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