[Sca-cooks] Regarding the Size of Rissoles

[Bill Fisher]

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 21:35:55 -0400, Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius
<adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
> As far as I know, in the US, an egg roll is usually the Cantonese
> variant of the spring roll, which is, in turn, a snack eaten in China
> during the festival marking the beginning of spring: the Lunar New
> Year. Chinese restaurants normally sell "egg rolls" with pork and/or
> shrimp, as described above, more or less, and the name indicates an
> egg & wheat-flour pasta wrapper, as opposed to the eggless wrapper
> resembling a high-gluten filo dough used for the Shanghai spring roll
> variant (which has a moister, more delicate and tender filling).
> Spring rolls are found in many southern Asian cuisines, but I believe
> they all probably stem from the Chinese originals.

Dunno, the cantonese ones are usually steamed, not fried.  I think
frying is an American variation on the process though.

 >
> >I think they are Filipino in origin and became popular in the US after WWII.
> 
> Lumpia are, AFAIK, the Filipino variant.

Yeah, but Lumpia are the same size and shape as our eggroll and have 
most of the same ingredients and are deep fried.  I remember my grandad 
and Dad telling me they tasted very similar (both were Navy men)

> There used to be a Hakka restaurant (the Hakka are sort of the
> Cantonese equivalent of gypsies; they live on boats in harbors in
> several southern Chinese towns) in New York's Chinatown called The
> Home Village, sadly long gone. Early in my time in the SCA, I had
> dinner there after working in the Wall Street financial district,
> wearing a nice suit and sitting there by myself, taking notes on a
> little pad while I wrote up an event proposal I was to present at a
> Provincial Commons meeting two hours later... they apparently thought
> I was a restaurant critic, and kept bringing food to my table that I
> hadn't ordered... it was a little embarrassing...

There was a place like that in the Philadephia Chinatown when I was
there in 1995 - we ate there during a (gasp) gaming convention. A
group of seven, long-ish haired gentlemen, all well dressed in black,
we roilled into the restaraunt, and received preferential seating and
a different menu than they had on the tables.

Really good food.  I didn't recognize much of what was on the menu,
but they said it was "Hakka chinese."  I retraced my steps when I 
moved about an hour from Philadelphia and the place had been 
bought out and a Subway was in its place.

Sad and depressing.

> One of the dishes was the Hakka version of the spring roll, which
> contained shredded bamboo shoots, shredded barbecued pork, and
> shredded black mushrooms, wrapped in leaves of what might have been
> Bibb lettuce, dipped in a crunchy batter (probably water-chestnut
> flour based), and fried. I've never had them anywhere else, but these
> were absolutely the best.

I have had something similar before, out in Omaha at a Pan-asian 
restaraunt that I can't remember the name of now. (Probably due
to the drinking that happened afterwards at the casinos in Iowa).

> Up until the 1960's or so, you could also buy a commercial
> dinner/burger/hot-dog-type bun which was sort of
> challah/brioche-like, and these were also commonly known as "egg
> rolls". I never seem to see these any more.

When I was a kid in PA, we used to get egg rolls and egg bread.  
Then the local bakery we got it from closed due to lack of sales.  

The place is now an auto parts store......


Cadoc

"The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it" -
                                    - William Gibson