Egg roll: A Neighborhood Tradition

I am blessed to live in a neighborhood that has traditions, old and new.  Grandview Heights in Lancaster, PA is an eighty year-old neighborhood, built originally for the workers of the nearby, and now defunct, RCA plant.  The residents love the trees and sidewalks, the well-built homes and slate roofs.  Of course, we have to deal with the small houses and yards, and the challenges of finding a place to plug things in inside houses built long before everything required power.  The best thing about Grandview Heights is the sense of community, and the many traditions that this community relishes. I love it here.

You can not think of traditions without thinking of food.  And sometime in the early part of this decade a new food tradition sprung up here in Grandview.  It had to have been six or so years ago, during the the annual giant neighborhood yard sale, that my wife came home from her walk/shopping excursion around the block and said, “You won’t believe this, but there is someone cooking eggrolls in front of one of the yard sales.”

Egg rolls cooking

I went down to inspect.  Underneath a small canopy, the lady was taking care of customers, filling souffle cups with spring roll sauce, and handing out bags with egg rolls. Beside her a man was working with chopsticks and a spoon in roasting pans filled with oil over top an outdoor double burner range. I bought a bag, way too few, received my sauce, and made my way home.

These egg rolls were a revelation.  These completely homemade rolls were unlike anything that I had ever had.  A bright crispiness when you bite into them, underneath are a few soft layers of the wrapper, and then the filling…super fresh and clean tasting with cabbage and pork.  We were not the only ones who noticed this stand.  It became an oft talked about topic around the neighborhood after that sale.  The folks that run the stand noticed too.  They are now not just back every year, but come out with several stands, and also come out to our adjoining neighborhood sales.  And we all love them for it.

Fast forward to a couple Saturdays mornings ago, I was returning from a maple syrup run to the grocery store (I had promised french toast, but realized I was syrup-less), and as I pulled into my parking spot, so my neighbor across the street pulled into hers.  She and her daughter exited their car with huge grins.

“They’re out!” she yells to me.

“Who?”

“The eggroll people! Guess what we had for breakfast.”  she told me.  I immediately was bummed that I had everything ready to go for the french toast and that I would have to wait a few hours for lunch to roll around to take advantage of this good news.   She said, “There are three stand today! Can you believe it…three!  There is a big yard sale at Salisbury Court. ” Salisbury Court is an adjoining neighborhood.

A little strange fact about me: I am obsessed with social insects, especially ants. Have bee since I was a kid.  My neighbor sniffing out the eggrolls made me think of how ants send out scouts.  I found more parallels as the morning wore on.

I went in and began the french toast.  I told my wife and kids about the eggrolls, and you could feel the excitement already.  My wife called her mother, who was going to visit us, to recommend that she plan her visit around lunchtime, to take advantage of fine offering that would be available.  In the time between breakfast and lunch, we had a couple phone calls from neighbors, informing us of the eggrolls down the street.  By the time lunch rolled around, the troops were ready.  I left the house with kids in tow.By the time we got to the cross street, I could smell the eggrolls, still blocks away.

When, after a few blocks we came to a street that had an eggroll stand, one of my restaurant customers that lives in our neighborhood, who was having a yard sale of his own, waved us over.  We shot the breeze for a bit, and then talked about the egg rolls.  He, Jay, told me that there are three stands and told me their various locations.  But then said that the couple nearest to his house made the best ones, and had been in the location for several years running.  I looked, and could recognize them from where I stood that these were the folks that brought the egg rolls here to our neighborhood in the first place. It was also the closest, and I needed an egg roll.

My dog, Bennie, wishing he could afford egg rolls.

Upon arriving at the stand, I proceeded to talk with the owners, and snap some pictures.  The lady taking order was an animated and enthusiastic conversationalist, but has an accent so strong that I could only understand every third word.  No matter– her joy was contagious and a enjoyed the banter.  We had to wait while our egg rolls were fried fresh, so I had a chance to talk with her husband too, with similar results.

The Egg Roll Man Practicing his Craft

They found it bizarre that I wanted to take pictures of food, but were good sports.  With 24 eggrolls in hand, we quickly walked home where my wife and mother-in-law were waiting.

As usual, the egg rolls were absolutely delicious.

Egg Rolls, Ready to Serve!

History of the Gyro

So the guy responsible for the gyro’s popularity in America is a guy named John Garlic?  I love that! Here is the article: History of the Gyro.

Mmmmm Buttermilk Pancakes

Many years back I received an electric griddle from my mother-in-law for Christmas.  While I appreciated the thought, I was really skeptical of its usefulness, especially in my tiny kitchen. I mean, what can this thing do, that my cast iron skillet cannot?  As it turns out, it is not what it can do differently, it is what it can do better.  Pancakes are something that definitely goes better on this griddle than in my skillet.  The controlled heat is helpful, but with a family of five, there is nothing like having a large cooking surface and being able to serve everyone at once–even the cook.

Wanting to try this griddle out, I searched for some pancake recipes.  And I found what I believe is the best recipe.  The only time I have had pancakes comparable to these, was at one of those Uncle Bill’s places down on the Jersey Shore, and I don’t think they were any better.  And more than once, others have told me these are the best flapjacks that they’ve tasted.  The one other thing I will say about these pancakes: my lousy photo aside, they are just beautiful to look at.

I cannot take credit for the recipe, which you can find here: Buttermilk Pancake recipe,  but I can give some tips for making these yummy hot cakes.

Pancake ProTips:

I generally follow the recipe exactly, with the one exception….I add a shot of vanilla.  I just like vanilla, so I add it to anything that makes sense. While vanilla does give these griddle cakes a nice flavor, it is not crucial at all.

The recipe says not to mix this up until right before cooking them: Follow this advice!  And just as importantly, do not mix this batter until smooth.  This pancake batter will be very lumpy going onto the griddle, and that lumpiness will make your pancakes fluffy and beautiful. Don’t forget to preheat your griddle (375 degrees does nicely).

One time when adding the melted butter to the other liquids, I just dumped it into the cold milk and buttermilk and it re-solidified.  Not cool! So add your melted butter slowly and mix while you are doing it.  It sure won’t hurt if those other liquids are not directly out of the fridge.

Even if your griddle, like mine, is non-stick, butter the thing between each batch.  The recipe makes a dozen large pancakes, so there will be more than one batch.  Just peel the wax paper back on the stick of butter and skate it around on the griddle surface between batches.  Unless your name is Julia Childs, you will not need more butter on these things once they are cooked.

Even with five hungry people, there is always leftover batter when I make this.  I recommend that you cook the rest and save them in the fridge for the next day over saving the batter.  The pancakes will be great the next morning if they are nuked for a few seconds and it saves you from cooking again.  Although you could save the batter, the pancakes made from the day-old batter will not taste or look as good as leftover pancakes made the first day and nuked.

Enjoy!

And Now for a Dancing Break…

This falls into the category “Indulge my Parental Pride”, but I don’t know if pride is what you would call my feelings about this, but this does make me smile. Heeeeere’s my boy, Frankie from a couple years ago.  Enjoy!

Why Cointreau?

Cointreau, here, is a quick, easy, if not inexpensive way to make a margarita much tastier.  The Triple Sec you buy at the liquor store or grocery store just doesn’t compare to the fresh orangeyness of Cointreau.  Use it, and your margarita will be much better.  In addition to flavor, Cointreau is 80 proof,  so it does not water down the margarita.  Triple Sec is often only 30 proof, and worse, many bars and restaurants buy the completely non-alcoholic type of triple sec.  Now there are always times when you want a weaker drink, like if you are serving people that are intending to just gulp them.  But if you are serving people who will actually want to taste the margarita, use Cointreau.

The Strawberry-Basil Margarita

Some years ago, I had saved a link to a story with a recipe for this drink, here it is: sb marg.  The thing is, I never broke out this recipe and made it.  Well, I have been mixing more this past few months, and so my wife bought me some cool cocktail glasses for Father’s Day (loved ‘em, thanks hon!).  Of course, she bought them with the expectation that she would get something in return, and I remembered this recipe that had been stored away in my bookmarks forever.  So I tried the recipe from the Houston Press article. And that recipe is okay, but too sweet.  It needed a bit of tweaking.  Here is my version, the version in the picture.

INGREDIENTS:

2-3 large strawberries, sliced

2-3 large basil leaves, roughly chopped or torn

1 oz tequila, preferably real tequila…100%agave

1oz Cointreau–see next post, much better than Triple Sec

1/2 oz  fresh lime juice

1 1/2oz simple syrup (you can adjust this, but leave out the extra white sugar, as it makes the drink too sweet)

Organic sugar (Domino pure cane certified organic is nice and fine)

Kosher salt

THE HOW TO:

First, and this is my new discovery, pour a little of that organic sugar onto a small plate, followed by a shallow layer of the kosher salt.  When I made these the first time, I could not decide, because of the ingredients,  whether I wanted to rim the glasses with sugar and salt:  so decided both.  The kosher salt on top allows the finer sugar to find space on the rim.  Upon doing this and realizing how freaking fantastic it is, I cannot understand why no one ever did this before.  Seriously, what is better than sugar and salt together?  Sweet and salty, babe…the same combo that brought us kettle corn and Reese’s cups.  Try it, and you’ll be rimming your Evian with this afterward.  Just take a piece of strawberry and wet the rim of the glass you are using and dip it onto the plate.

Strawberry, Basil, Tequila...yum!

Next, dump the berries (saving a slice or two for garnish) and the basil into the mixing glass and muddle/mash them up like a mojito, but you don’t have to do it as long.  Add the liquid, some ice, and shake really well. Add ice to your glass, and fill with your margarita, add the garnish.  I use a strawberry slice and a few chiffonades of the basil for decoration.  The next time you make this, you may want to adjust the sweetness.  Enjoy!