Who Really Invented Chinese Egg Rolls?

[@davec3964]

I love your channel and all the history that you provide. My family, starting with my great uncle started a Chinese restaurant in Portland Oregon right after WWII. Unfortunately, my family sold it in the early 2020s as none of my siblings nor I wanted to get into the restaurant business. Watching your content brings back memories for me. Thanks!

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

Thanks for your kind words! American Chinese food is experiencing big changes partly due to the retirements of restaurant owners like your family. Can't wait to see how it's going to evolve.

[@SargNickFury]

As a kid in Tennessee we had an indoor flea market in the 70's, that included a stand ran by an older Chinese man. I must have been like 2 the first time I got one of his eggrolls. There wasn't even a place to sit down, as he mostly sold I think to the other merchants who would eat at their stalls. I ate it while my mother held me. But I wanted another he got so tickled seeing me eat it he made another for free. Everytime we'd go there I'd ask for one. I been in love with them ever since. I do not care if it is "Authentic" Chinese. I have been to China and while some food there was wonderful, not all of it was (snake's blood wine...never again) However Eggrolls done right by American Chinese have been my comfort food from about the time I had started walking. American Chinese have been a part of building this country from the start and I consider it as American as apple pie, Brunswick stew, and hardshell tacos!

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

I love what you said. You make me want to do a series where people get to talk about their first memories with Chinese food in America. Let me share a story of mine with snakes: My grandpa used to take me to an old neighborhood in Kowloon where the whole street was snake vendors, cages and cages of snakes out front. I remember the chrysanthemum taste in the snake soups and I loved the fried wonton chips that go with them.

[@norbertk9595]

I've loved American Chinese food since I was a kid, and am learning so much from your channel! Before watching this video, the earliest reference to egg rolls I knew of is in Joyce Chen's cookbook, which was published in 1962. I now know they had been around well prior to that. Keep up the the great work

[@Thumpaholic]

Thanks

[@kennylee1732]

Fried dumplings! My favorite. Even bad ones

[@67kneil]

Great content

[@Shivaismysaviour]

Great video Unlimited possibilities with egg rolls. I just had horrible ones made with crystal noddles 😫 Love shrimp egg rolls in homemade Sweet n sour sauce. But I can't ever find that flavor I remember as a kid anywhere, something that will always bother me a Lil haha

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

Tell me more about the flavor? What's in it?

[@hxhdfjifzirstc894]

I'd like to know how American Chinese food menus and recipes became nearly standardized -- for example Pork Fried Rice. PS I consider carrots and peas to be pure evil, when added to fried rice. Just pork, egg, and green onion please!

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

For modern Chinese takeout restaurants, the influx of Fujianese workers into the United States starting in the 90's and the subsequent streamlining of the Chinese restaurant industry has definitely contributed to the monotonous standardization of the business. I hope to do an episode on Fujianese restaurant workers this year. Having grown up in a colonized place, I am actually more used to fried rice with carrots and peas. 🤣 But it all depends on the occasion! I make very different types of fried rice at home depending on what I have in the fridge.

[@hultonclint]

Hi Kristie, what do you make of Shiu Wong Chan having "Egg Roll" or 日(sic)/旦卷 in his book....and it's an actual omelette rolled up? And why, in one of the passages you showed, does it say the inventor mixed in egg etc and called it Tchun Guen (i.e. 春卷) or Egg Roll (mistranslation of Spring Roll)?

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

A good reference here is the earliest Cantonese recipe book "Truth in Deliciousness" published in 1887 (I accidentally bought three copies (in Simplified Chinese). I can mail you one if you want). It has two similar recipes. One is called 卷煎, it's basically Shiu Wong Chan's egg roll wrapped in a thin layer of cooked egg. The other is called 春花, which is closer to what we know of egg roll today, but wrapped not in dough, but caul fat membrane. It indicates we've had both egg skin and deep fried rolls for a while even in Cantonese cuisine. I think Henry Low never claimed he invented egg roll, what he claimed to have invented was using water chestnut flour instead of potato/corn starch for the wrapper.

[@hultonclint]

@@AmericanChineseFoodShow Wow again, thanks!! I'm currently visiting Ottawa, Canada, and just learned that Canadians have a special idea of egg roll style that is modeled on what was made famous by an Ottawa's "oldest Chinese restaurant," Golden Palace. Evidently, numerous other restaurants have copied the style. I'm starting to see how some Canadians have taken this egg roll as almost a matter of their national pride! They even refer to fast-food style Chinese-American restaurants as "egg roll places" or something like that. Evidently, the Golden Palace egg rolls are so popular that people in other parts of Canada have them shipped so they can reheat them at home. I'm only in Ottawa a few days and, although I'd really like to see what these egg rolls are about, I don't want to make a trip to Golden Palace because the rest of its food looks....terrible :/ www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2023/08/golden-palace-ottawa/

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

@@hultonclint Wow, thanks for the tip! Golden Palace actually ships their egg rolls!! I got Ann Hui's book Chop Suey Nation on Canadian Chinese food, but I haven't started reading it. I promised another viewer I will work on some Canada episodes, maybe this will be a good reason for me to visit. It will have to be after the winter season though.

[@JulieBoudha]

@@hultonclint I can confirm, the rest of the food is not that good...

[@silvestersze9968]

Hey, what state are you in?

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

California. Why? :)

[@silvestersze9968]

@@AmericanChineseFoodShow Nice 👍🏻! I love 💕 California. I’m in Washington. :)

[@silvestersze9968]

@@AmericanChineseFoodShow I was born in HK. You make awesome videos! And I love 💕 to eat. haha

[@AmericanChineseFoodShow]

@@silvestersze9968 Same here, born and raised in HK :)

[@silvestersze9968]

@@AmericanChineseFoodShow Oh yeah?!… that’s fantastic! I bet you love DimSum as well… I sometimes go up to Vancouver BC for more authentic ones. hehe 😜