The Popular Chinese Appetizer That's Actually Chinese-American

Egg rolls are one of the most popular menu items at Chinese restaurants in the U.S., but it's unlikely that you'll find them in China. Like orange chicken and other Chinese dishes that aren't commonly eaten in China, egg rolls were first created in the 1930s in New York City's Chinatown, although it's unclear who the actual inventor was. The egg roll does have Chinese roots, however, that date back to 400 A.D., when spring rolls, a non-fried version, were often served with other traditional dishes to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Originally, spring rolls were made of a thin flour and water wrapper that was rolled and stuffed with vegetables, and then, sometime in the 1600s, and until 1912, meat, shrimp, and other ingredients, like bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, were added. 

Chinese workers had begun to immigrate to the U.S. in the 1850s during the Gold Rush, and by the 1870s, immigrants were settling in lower Manhattan in a three-street district that came to be called Chinatown. Small teahouses and rice shops popped up, but as Chinese food became increasingly popular with non-Chinese clientele, the restaurants grew into ornate palaces. In 1897, the largest Chinese restaurant, Port Arthur, opened, and it was here that — purportedly — the egg roll was invented. Henry Low was the chef at Port Arthur, and in 1938, he published a cookbook, "Cook At Home," in which he claims to have created "tchun guen," a new type of spring roll in 1908.

Low was most likely the first Chinese-American chef to incorporate water chestnut flour — an ingredient still used in Chinese restaurants today — into his egg roll wrapper, but there's no real evidence, other than his saying so, that definitively proves he created the egg roll. Another Chinese-American chef, Lum Fung, seems to have a more substantial case for being the inventor of the egg roll. Fung opened his eponymously named restaurant in 1925, and despite its somewhat downtrodden exterior, inside, the restaurant was a fantasia of high-end Chinese society. Fung served favorite Chinese-American dishes, along with some exotic fare, such as polar bear claw, and the restaurant became a celebrity hangout. 

Four years before Low's cookbook, a recipe for fried egg rolls was published in newspapers in 1934, giving credit to Fung, and it was reprinted by newspapers across the country. The egg roll was on a roll, and by the late 1930s was served at Chinese-American restaurants everywhere. By 1940, when Fung opened his second restaurant, serving his "famed" egg rolls for 45 cents a plate, he seemed to have been widely recognized as the appetizer's creator. Interestingly, though, in Fung's 1952 obituary, The New York Times merely credited Fung for "popularizing" the egg roll along with wonton soup. 

If you have a yen for homemade egg rolls, you can try this simple recipe for egg roll wrappers. Or purchase pre-made wrappers and make shrimp egg rolls with duck sauce.