jimswside wrote:alright - one last one before I take a break for a couple days(i need a Freddy) - 9 different egg rolls in 6 days.. been a long, long while since a thread on LTH got me out and on the search - kudos.

Sir, your sacrifice is appreciated, thanks for your research.

Thanks. I'd love to see someone do this for fried rice.

toria wrote:Thanks. I'd love to see someone do this for fried rice.

Why not you?

Someone say fried rice, egg roll, AND hot and sour soup?

lunch special at Hong Kong Restaurant 3904 N. Cicero, about 6 bucks:

http://imgur.com/a/T6uNS#2

toria wrote:Thanks. I'd love to see someone do this for fried rice.

I've given up on fried rice ever since River Kwai closed on Belmont. That was the best fried rice I have ever or probably will ever have.

Dark with soy and fish sauce, good quality pork or shrimp, and with only green onions, no disgusting mixed carrots and peas.

If you were lucky and it wasn't too busy, you could get spicy pork fried rice with Satay Pork on top and peanut sauce. That combined with Gunther Murphy's a few doors east was the epicenter of my social life in the early 90's.

Are you talking about the Chinese place at about 1400 Belmont and Murphy's hot dogs about the same address in the mid to late 1980's?

Octarine wrote:

toria wrote:Thanks. I'd love to see someone do this for fried rice.

I've given up on fried rice ever since River Kwai closed on Belmont. That was the best fried rice I have ever or probably will ever have.

Dark with soy and fish sauce, good quality pork or shrimp, and with only green onions, no disgusting mixed carrots and peas.

If you were lucky and it wasn't too busy, you could get spicy pork fried rice with Satay Pork on top and peanut sauce. That combined with Gunther Murphy's a few doors east was the epicenter of my social life in the early 90's.

Oh, Octarine, you just gave me chills--GM was my local throughout the 00s and I was at River Kwai frequently until Deja (NO idea how it was really spelled) had a stroke and they closed. I still live less than a block away and the manager/bartender at Gunther's, Eamonn, was my roommate for several years. The fried rice at River Kwai was amazing, as were the crazy noodles. Nothing has ever tasted like those. Anywhere. Deja knew my phone number by heart after hearing it once. We'd put an order in when the bar closed and go home. Can't tell you how many times Deja called and woke us up at 3:30 a.m. to tell us to come get our food. Those were some crazy days.

kenji wrote:Are you talking about the Chinese place at about 1400 Belmont and Murphy's hot dogs about the same address in the mid to late 1980's?

Mike (Octarine) is referring to River Kwai on Belmont between Paulina and Ashland, (1650 W. Belmont) which was shuttered around a decade ago.

More details about River Kwai from Titus (Da Beef) and others can be found further down in that same fried rice thread starting at post #10 and in another post from Leah Zeldes (LAZ).

A Turkish restaurant (Nazarlik) was there for a relatively brief period until it closed, and then Late Night Thai was there until this summer when it moved east down the block to 1624 W. Belmont into the Asian Avenue space. The space at 1650 W. Belmont is currently vacant.

--
edc

You can get a kinda sorta similar Gunther Murphy's c.1995 at The Corrib on Elston a couple blocks N of the DMV. Good sessions and plenty of Gaelige spoken.

No such luck for the fried rice. Other favorites from Deja and his family (brother worked the wok and sister made soups) were the Potak seafood soup, the red curry with bamboo shoots and pork, but really, the fried rice was the star of the show.

Rolled out to 2 different spots last Thursday -

Canton's over in Brookfield -



phoned in the order for 2 egg rolls and ate these head to head with the following stop:

Canton's looked good:





not a bad egg roll - just near the bottom of the ones ive done recently -

Canton's
9409 Ogden Ave.
Brookfield, IL.

708-485-1919

Shot over to Moy Yuen over in Countryside -



Should have gotten 2 of these - plus a really solid fried rice - Ill be back



liked this egg roll for sure - crunchy, fresh filling - though no peanut butter flavor - still good.



Moy Yuen
5532 S. LaGrange Rd.
Countryside, IL.

708-352-0377

got the crave again this a.m. - ive got a spot in Westmont in mind.

Pro-Tip: Direct sunlight in October in the Chicago area is the perfect light source for egg roll photography.

Feeding the jonez. Stayed local to work a couple spots in Westmont yesterday.

Id read that China Chef's egg rolls had peanut butter in them so it was on my list for sure:



downtown Westmont so trains can be an issue - egg rolls were very good - fatty's..



top 3 - wanted to chow both of these...



China Chef
42 N. Cass Ave.
Westmont, IL.

630-964-9401

Just south of China Chef I hit Golden Bowl in Westmont - another spot thats supposed to be solid:



Id been here before but didnt get egg rolls - place smelled really good - might have to get a return visit in. Eggrolls were good - but they were going head to head with the China Chef ones.



pretty good - would have been better if they werent going head to head with the previous stop..



Comparison ~ China Chef top / Golden Bowl bottom:



Golden Bowl
6313 Fairview
Westmont, IL.

630-852-6688

Got an errand up north today - got 1 stop in my sights..

13 so far here I think(ive had some bad ones I wont report) still got about 3-5 left on the worn out piece of paper that is my list.

laikom wrote:On the mustard, have one piece of advice (as illegal as it may be!). I used to buy "hot dressing oil" from Joong Boo which is just pure mustard oil, but in the past few years I have not been able to find it. If you can get your hands on some, a small drop is all it would take to bring any mustard sauce up to an intense level. I still have an old bottle that I use from time to time for recipes. It's potent stuff. If you can find it locally, let me know where.

You can find small bottles of "hot dressing oil" at H Mart (Niles) in the mustard and wasabi aisle.



This is the typical Korean stuff: soybean oil spiked with some mustard essential oil. It's plenty strong.

Rene G wrote:I was going to ask pretty much the same questions about the PBER.

I'd completely forgotten the peanut butter issue was discussed here at some length in a much earlier thread. A couple old Chowhound threads (here and here) have some interesting information as well. Part of that old LTHF thread discussed the egg roll recipe from Antoinette Pope School Cookbook (1948), calling for both peanut butter and melted butter. It wasn't mentioned earlier, but that recipe came from Shangri-La, a popular "Cantonese" restaurant on State near Lake.


"In this lush tropical setting out of the fabled East Indies, partake of the finest of Cantonese cuisine,
the smoothest of rare drinks. An experience to treasure!"

Together with House of Eng (as well as its associated restaurants) and Hoe Kow, Shangri-La probably did as much as anyone to popularize egg rolls in Chicago during the early-to-mid 1940s (it may be hard to believe that egg rolls were not ubiquitous in Chicago's Chinese restaurants much before then). Besides being presented in a cookbook widely read in Chicago, this exotic recipe was featured in the Chicago Tribune and probably planted the idea in many Chicagoans' minds that peanut butter is an essential ingredient in any proper egg roll.

Shangri-La's kitchen was run by "Jimmy Chan, that ageless grand mogul of all Cantonese chefs." The Tribune column profiling Mr Chan went on to mention he was from Canton, Ohio!

Rene G wrote:Shangri-La's kitchen was run by "Jimmy Chan, that ageless grand mogul of all Cantonese chefs." The Tribune column profiling Mr Chan went on to mention he was from Canton, Ohio!

Of course! Isn't that where ALL Cantonese food comes from?

If one were interested in Chinese cuisine and American history I found this a great read:

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States

"In 1784, passengers on the ship Empress of China became the first Americans to land in China, and the first to eat Chinese food. Today there are over 40,000 Chinese restaurants across the United States--by far the most plentiful among all our ethnic eateries. Now, in Chop Suey Andrew Coe provides the....."

http://www.amazon.com/Chop-Suey-Cultura ... 0195331079

kenji wrote:If one were interested in Chinese cuisine and American history I found this a great read:

Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States

Here's a short piece by Andrew Coe, author of Chop Suey, specifically on egg rolls: Egg Rolls in America.

jimswside wrote:

Now THAT'S what I call food porn.

I'm sure glad Rene mentioned Shangri-La. As much as I appreciate either white balance card-checked or autumnal sun-drenched appetizers, I think the egg roll's natural habitat is a windowless room, originally with an apotropaic fog of cigarette smoke both in the kitchen and the dining area. I will explore the architectural kinship between Sabatino's, Trader Vic's, and the Australian Mammal House at the Brookfield Zoo in a separate essay.



This, for comparison, is at Chef Shangri-La in North Riverside, open and untouched since 1976, a time capsule of Polynesian Chinoiserie. It is more of a loosely-rolled cigar than the overstuffed China Chef bomblet (which I also have appreciated for many years) and goes damn well with water chestnut-studded Mongolian Beef. If there's any shrimp in there it's minced - finely shredded cabbage and peppered pork predominate. It is a staircase up from the samples at the Costco down the street, whose ilk is cited in the Coe article linked above.

But how did we get this far in the thread without a detailed discussion of standard eggroll table condiments, for which the fried wrapper is merely a delivery vehicle?



This has been my preferred application method for decades: the mustard needs to be traversed to reach the sweet center, a wage of sinusal pain that must be exacted. This is my descending hierarchy of joy when eggroll condiments appear:

1. open-top stainless pitchers of house-mixed sweet and sour and mustard. Duck sauce should be a pink slurry with fruit bits. Mustard should be thick enough to contain dollop of duck sauce like the very Eye of Sauron.* Don't bring your water-mustard up in this house.

2. pancake syrup bottles with never-cleaned lids of orange duck sauce and spicy industrial mustard (illustrated above)

3. clear packets of preservative-laden duck sauce and grainy mustard-like foam product with no heat. Most commonly seen with "soy sauce" packets. Amusingly, the packets are sometimes served within the metal cruets at the restaurants, as if you're supposed to fill and then apply.

This prompts me to add that one of the reasons I'm a Pandapologist is because they (in addition to house-cut fresh veg, beyond many of these places) have good condiments, including the elusive Potsticker Sauce. But I digress.

Since Jim now carries the hopes and dreams of our generation, I trust his palate and liver with Tae Fu and Tong's Tiki Hut (Villa Park), Hua Ting (Hinsdale) and Gong Ho (Lemont, don't miss the fried rice). It's like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge but with glutamate excitotoxicity.

*to continue with the well-established high fantasy paradigm of LTH eggroll dialectics.

I might add Malahini Terrace in Darien. It's been quite a while but they always had very solid Chinese American and an exemplary egg roll in an atmospheric Polynesian strip mall oasis.

This thread is the cure for all that ails the world of Internet commentary.

seebee wrote:Now THAT'S what I call food porn.

I just caught your drift seebee! Its all in the food styling.

Santander wrote:
But how did we get this far in the thread without a detailed discussion of standard eggroll table condiments, for which the fried wrapper is merely a delivery vehicle?



This has been my preferred application method for decades: the mustard needs to be traversed to reach the sweet center, a wage of sinusal pain that must be exacted. This is my descending hierarchy of joy when eggroll condiments appear:

1. open-top stainless pitchers of house-mixed sweet and sour and mustard. Duck sauce should be a pink slurry with fruit bits. Mustard should be thick enough to contain dollop of duck sauce like the very Eye of Sauron.* Don't bring your water-mustard up in this house.

2. pancake syrup bottles with never-cleaned lids of orange duck sauce and spicy industrial mustard (illustrated above)

3. clear packets of preservative-laden duck sauce and grainy mustard-like foam product with no heat. Most commonly seen with "soy sauce" packets. Amusingly, the packets are sometimes served within the metal cruets at the restaurants, as if you're supposed to fill and then apply.

This prompts me to add that one of the reasons I'm a Pandapologist is because they (in addition to house-cut fresh veg, beyond many of these places) have good condiments, including the elusive Potsticker Sauce. But I digress.

Since Jim now carries the hopes and dreams of our generation, I trust his palate and liver with Tae Fu and Tong's Tiki Hut (Villa Park), Hua Ting (Hinsdale) and Gong Ho (Lemont, don't miss the fried rice). It's like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge but with glutamate excitotoxicity.

*to continue with the well-established high fantasy paradigm of LTH eggroll dialectics.

nice addition and discussion of sauce application/. Im stealing that "eye of sauron" method..looks similar to the proportions of mustard to duck sauce that i enjoy. I had a couple of those other spots you mentioned on my list as well - definitely going to them and the others as well the N. Riverside spot you profiled.

The one bad thing is I havent gotten any house made hot mustard yet., since I have taken every order to go a couple spots had their own duck sauce, which was a nice change vs the packets.

Had a really good egg roll & fried rice a carryout only spot up in Villa Park yesterday- only had time for 1 stop.. - China House:



fresh out the fryer:


tasted fresh pork and shrimps.


I'm up in this area sometimes once a week - ill be back when i am. - just a solid egg roll and visit -

China House
339 E. North Ave.
Villa Park, IL.

630-834-8620

All this talk and pics had me continuing on in my years long search for the best egg roll. I in fact have not tried Kow Kow's and will change that soon but in the meantime I think I have new leader in my rankings. I tried four new to me old school American-Chinese restaurant versions and also wanted to share an obvious one that at least needs to be documented. So let's keep this show on a roll.
_________________________________________________________________________

Wing Hoe


On Sheridan in Edgewater

Never been here until they came up in a search though I've passed it countless times. I always wanted to do the old school Chinese restaurant 1-2 punch of Wing Hoe in Edgewater followed by taking Lakeshore drive to House of Bing in the South Shore neighborhood. Both have been there for a while. Wing Hoe has been tucked away amongst the towers for over 30 years and as you may of seen coming the specialty of the house is the egg roll. "Our house special! The crispy crust is made with peanut butter for a delicate nutty flavor. Egg rolls are then filled with shrimp and cabbage." Not bad but there's better.


Nicely fried with nice peanut butter flavor but not having pork hurts, though having housemade hot mustard helps
_________________________________________________________________________

Hunan Egg Roll King

Cant have a round-up without throwing this self named king into the mix. The small storefront shop is located on Broadway and they do a mostly takeout business for the interesting people of Uptown. This from 2010. "The egg rolls were somewhat soft and not very crispy and it was even hard to slice it open because the roll was pretty limp. After I was able to gut it open I noticed it was real heavy on the cabbage and real light on the meat and or shrimp. The hot mustard was the stuff in the packets that most places use so that's another minus. All in all the egg roll was fine but nothing about it was top notch."


Not fit for a King
_________________________________________________________________________

Moy Lee Chinese


On Milwaukee in Portage Park

Randomly drove by here and decided to try it before remembering that they were part of the original round-up. I pretty much agree with everything said as far as it having the most meat in an egg roll I've ever come across, BBQ pork too I believe as mine had the red colored meat with lots of chopped scallions inside. One was perfectly fried while the other was a tad soft and I didn't detect much peanut butter either yet thoroughly enjoyed them.


As colorful as the inside of an egg roll can get, about the only thing missing was house hot mustard
_________________________________________________________________________

Luo's Peking House


Marion Street in Oak Park


Made with Chicken, Shrimp, peanut butter and served with hot mustard packets

This was the first place I tried since the OP was made. I was just in the mood for two and happened to be driving by so I stopped in to see what was up. Classic old school spot with the fish tank and furniture from the 70's. The menu states that these are made with peanut butter but unfortunately they're also made with bird instead of pig. I liked them but I really had a taste for them so as it turned out better rolls lay ahead.


The insides, nice bits of peanut butter revealed but a tad dry from use of chicken
_________________________________________________________________________

New Star Restaurant


North avenue in Elmwood Park

This American-Chinese classic has been a fixture of the neighborhood for over 50 years. The current location was built in 1970 and not much inside has changed. The family that runs the place lives in Chinatown but drives West each day to feed the generations of families that frequent the place. As mentioned in an article on the wall inside they consider their customers here to be their second family. Recipes have stayed the same and you guessed it, the egg roll is uber popular.


Perfectly fried and served with a potent house mustard on the side

If not for this thread I would never know where to find my new #1 because never would I have stopped hear with Johnnie's so near. In fact as soon as I got out the car to go in I got a whiff of the char grilled sausage in the air and almost walked towards there before fighting off the urge and continuing on with the quest. Turns out I might have a new 1-2 punch in my rotation. These were fantastic, creamy and perfectly balanced with house mustard that delivered sinus clearing heat. I'll be back.


The creamy insides...don't get any ideas seebee
_________________________________________________________________________

Wing Hoe
5356 N Sheridan Rd
Chicago, IL 60640
(773) 275-4550

Hunan Egg Roll King
4204 N Broadway
Chicago, IL 60613-1610
(773) 883-2647

Moy Lee Chinese
5346 N Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630
(773) 631-1290

Luo's Peking House
113 N Marion St
Oak Park, IL 60301
(708) 386-3055

New Star Restaurant
7444 W North Ave
Elmwood Park, IL 60707
(708) 453-8242

Da Beef wrote:_________________________________________________________________________

New Star Restaurant


North avenue in Elmwood Park

This American-Chinese classic has been a fixture of the neighborhood for over 50 years. The current location was built in 1970 and not much inside has changed. The family that runs the place lives in Chinatown but drives West each day to feed the generations of families that frequent the place. As mentioned in an article on the wall inside they consider their customers here to be their second family. Recipes have stayed the same and you guessed it, the egg roll is uber popular.


Perfectly fried and served with a potent house mustard on the side

If not for this thread I would never know where to find my new #1 because never would I have stopped hear with Johnnie's so near. In fact as soon as I got out the car to go in I got a whiff of the char grilled sausage in the air and almost walked towards there before fighting off the urge and continuing on with the quest. Turns out I might have a new 1-2 punch in my rotation. These were fantastic, creamy and perfectly balanced with house mustard that delivered sinus clearing heat. I'll be back.


The creamy insides...don't get any ideas seebee
_________________________________________________________________________


New Star Restaurant
7444 W North Ave
Elmwood Park, IL 60707
(708) 453-8242

nice. this spot was on my list and is now at the top. -- too far from work to hit during lunch and missed going on a past Saturdays excursions.

Alpine ~ New Star ~ Johnnies ~~ hell yeah..

stevez wrote:If I'm remembering correctly, the batter dipped egg roll served at Kow Kow is a relatively recent addition. I remember non - battered egg rolls being served there when I was a kid; similar to those still being served at Mee Mah (owned by members of the same family).

We just came back from Kow Kow to procure an order of egg rolls and my old college friend, Wendy Moy, who's family has owned Kow Kow since 1949, happened to be behind the register. We asked her when Kow Kow began serving their battered egg rolls and she said they've been doing it that way since their inception.

jimswside wrote:nice. this spot was on my list and is now at the top. -- too far from work to hit during lunch and missed going on a past Saturdays excursions.

Alpine ~ New Star ~ Johnnies ~~ hell yeah..

I grew up on New Star. Several years ago, they added, (or maybe I only then noticed) "Hot Hunan Egg Rolls" to the menu. Might be worth a try for a different take on their regular egg rolls. I've had the Hunan Egg Rolls a few times, and they vary quite a bit in heat - never really delivering a decent punch of heat, but interesting and unique.

In that area, Alpine ~~ hell yeah. Agreed.

This thread has been making me salivate for the past couple weeks, but my choices are severely limited here in Central Illinois. There are a whole lot of bland egg rolls down here. But I decided to give the egg rolls at the Grand Cafe a try. It is the oldest restaurant in Bloomington-Normal, having celebrated its 90th anniversary somewhat recently. The egg roll is pretty dang tasty, with BBQ pork and shrimp and cabbage as filling, with a hint of peanut butter. It was fried well and survived my 10 minute car ride home in the styrofoam container. I ordered it as part of the "PC Tray", which included fried wontons, house fried rice, and 4 slices of their sada steak.

Now it just may be the 6.5 month pregnant me talking, but this meal really hit the spot today. Dumbed down American-Chinese food? Yes. But it was pretty delicious today. Jimswside, if you haven't already, check it out on your next visit down here!

Sharona wrote:This thread has been making me salivate for the past couple weeks, but my choices are severely limited here in Central Illinois. There are a whole lot of bland egg rolls down here. But I decided to give the egg rolls at the Grand Cafe a try. It is the oldest restaurant in Bloomington-Normal, having celebrated its 90th anniversary somewhat recently. The egg roll is pretty dang tasty, with BBQ pork and shrimp and cabbage as filling, with a hint of peanut butter. It was fried well and survived my 10 minute car ride home in the styrofoam container. I ordered it as part of the "PC Tray", which included fried wontons, house fried rice, and 4 slices of their sada steak.

Now it just may be the 6.5 month pregnant me talking, but this meal really hit the spot today. Dumbed down American-Chinese food? Yes. But it was pretty delicious today. Jimswside, if you haven't already, check it out on your next visit down here!

ha..

i feel your pain re: choices out where you live. Other than Fab. Noodles in Lisle I havent found a good eggroll west of I355 or south of I80in NW illinois yet..

Sounds like you may have found a good one - might be down that way next week, thanks for the heads up.

I remembered Tongs from back in the day growing up in Naperville. I had passed by the Villa park location en route to Johnsons on Roosevelt road many times - never making the connection til Santander mantioned them upthread as a worthy stop.




cool location in a strip mall - totally decked out in the polynesian theme. Grabbed my usual egg rolls and shrimp fried rice to go.

fattyz - usually a good sign:


yep - these were good - peanut butter punch - greasy in a good way many shrimps buried in there - I chowed both - thats a 1st... obviously one of my favorites so far.


Tong's Tiki Hut
100 E. Roosevelt Rd.
Villa Park, IL.

630-834-7464

http://www.tongstikihutvillapark.com/

got in a 2-fer down in Homer Glen(the home of prob. the best IB in chicagoland - Orig. mr. beef) 1st stop for the phone in carryout was First Wok II - on 143rd.

Strip mall chinese - dude that owned this place was especially cool/friendly. :


sweet - with some housemade s&s:


top notch(lots of pork - little bit o' peanut butter - really good one:



enjoyed the shrimp fried rice as well

First Wok II
13025 W. 143rd Street
Homer Glen, IL.

708-645-0888

One could do a tasty run east or west on this stretch of 143rd - First Wok 2, Orig. Mr. Beef, Italia, Heines McCarthy.

easy 2nd stop for the carryout order to orient Cafe on Bell Road:

small bar in this place




kind of an interesting filling - lots of minced ground pork - good but different -



Orient Cafe
14108 S. Bell Road
Homer Glen, IL.

708-301-8988

http://www.orientcafeonline.com/