Egg roll

The egg roll is a variety of a 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. Despite its name, egg rolls generally do not contain egg. However, it is sometimes brushed with egg white to seal the edges.

The dish is served warm, and is usually eaten with the fingers, dipped in duck sauce, soy sauce, plum sauce, or hot mustard, often from a cellophane packet. Egg rolls are a ubiquitous feature of American Chinese cuisine.

Origins

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; they 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"; they did not include cabbage, which is the main filling ingredient in modern egg rolls.