My first recollection of eating a decent American-Cantonese egg roll was from Moy’s Cantonese in Northbrook sometime in the early 1970s. My older brother Paul worked there during high school and Mr. Moy taught him how to make egg rolls. Mr. & Mrs. Moy loved my brother and wanted him to marry a nice Chinese girl someday. I loved these egg rolls as a kid and God only knows if they were truly any good. But does it really matter anyhow?!
My ideal egg roll has a crispy, greaseless wrapper, is filled with just the right proportions of pork, shrimp, and cabbage,bound with at least a detectable amount of peanut butter, and having a natural sweetness from the cabbage to offset the saltiness. Looking for a high-quality American-Cantonese egg roll over the years has proved difficult. Nonetheless, I thought it was high time to try several examples in sucession to see their relative merits and/or shortcomings.
The following are notes from some of my favorite egg roll places along with a couple recommended spots (Moy Lee & Golden Wok) that made our cut for a one-day egg roll excursion.
Palace Cantonese (Morton Grove)
This egg roll was slightly greasy but still had decent integrity. The well-integrated filling has a nice sweet/savory thing going with a good subtle level of peanut butter to boot. Very pleasant sweet/savory counterpoint. Enjoyable and certainly one of the best of the day.
8.5-9/10.
(Laikom)
China Chef (Morton Grove)
This egg roll was like a geyser with grease seeping out of its wrapper. A denser filling composed mostly of cabbage and indiscernible amounts of pork and/or shrimp. Turmeric added. One-dimensional.
7/10
(Laikom)
Kow Kow (Lincolnwood)
Our threesome was oohing and ahhing about the aesthetics of this outstanding batter-dipped greaseless egg roll. A true work of art. Nice sized rustic chunks of distinct (not integrated) shrimp and pork with coarsely chopped cabbage with good crunch that added much-needed texture to the overall bite. Definitely on the salty side, though. The Chinese mustard is clearly the notable additive here and not peanut butter. A great egg roll in spite of it being on the salty side. First rate.
9+/10
Word around the campfire is the longtime owners of Kow Kow (Moy) are looking to sell.
PIGMON wrote:Word around the campfire is the longtime owners of Kow Kow (Moy) are looking to sell.
CORRECTION as of 10/15/14: Apparently, someone spoke too fast to me over at Kow Kow. Wendy said that negotiations fell through and the family has no intention whatsoever of selling anytime soon.
(Laikom)
Golden Wok (Chicago)
Even upon casual inspection, one might end up wanting to call this thing an “albino egg roll”. Rock hard and greaseless, this "dry wall" batter-dipped egg roll is fried to a cement consistency. Ridiculously dry filling. It tasted as though it was industrially made (think frozen egg roll ala Chun King.). Ugh.
4/10
(Laikom)
Moy Lee (Chicago)
Unlike China Chef, this is a clean (greaseless) egg roll. This filling has the highest pork to cabbage ratio I've ever come across anywhere. The meat might have been a tad on the tired side but not close to a deal breaker - at least for me, that is. I couldn’t detect any peanut butter but was assured by the staff that it’s in there.
An egg roll worthy of at least a try.
8/10
(Laikom)
Lee's Chop Suey (Chicago)
As some of the old timers around here might remember,
The Immortal Hungryrabbi wasn’t a big fan of this place in the least. In fact, he posted about it in the “Tell me your worst food experience in Chicago” thread back in 2004 (“It was as though a flavor vampire had sucked the life out of this plate of food…”!!!). But I’m betting he would’ve loved their egg rolls.
The filling here is of the mulched variety (sweet as well as savory) with the cabbage still retaining a welcome bit of crunch. This egg roll has many similarities with the one found at Palace Cantonese. If you like a pronounced amount of peanut butter in your egg roll and live in the City, you should consider trying this well-balanced effort.
8.5-9/10
(Laikom)
I don’t think there was any doubt that Kow Kow’s egg roll was the group’s consensus favorite with its pristine greaseless batter-dipped wrapper, high-quality filling, and superb construction. But I don’t think it’s completely fair to compare a batter-dipped style egg roll like what is found at Kow Kow to the more common traditional style egg rolls found at places like Palace Cantonese or Lee’s Chop Suey.
Top Honors: Kow KowHonorable Mentions: Palace Cantonese, Lee’s Chop SueyCertainly Worth a Try: Moy LeePalace Cantonese9236 Waukegan Rd, Morton Grove
(847) 966-2231
palacecantonese.com
China Chef5920 Lincoln Ave, Morton Grove
(847) 967-6050
Kow Kow6755 N Cicero Ave, Lincolnwood
(847) 677-7717
Golden Wok5731 N Central Ave, Chicago
(773) 631-8884
Moy Lee5346 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago
(773) 631-1290
Lee’s Chop Suey2415 W Diversey Ave, Chicago
(773) 342-7050
Last edited by
PIGMON on October 15th, 2014, 2:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.