When Did Peanuts Become a Normal Ingredient of Egg Rolls?
I used to love egg rolls, and I'd have them every chance I got. I had them in various places in the U.S., and even when I spent a year in Japan as an exchange student. I'm allergic to peanuts, but egg rolls never caused me any problem--until everything changed.
I had my first peanut-tinged egg roll on a visit to Chicago a bit more than twenty years ago. I hadn't expected to find peanuts in it, so I think I ate the whole thing. However much I ate, though, I became violently ill. (The proprietors insisted that they didn't use peanuts or peanut butter, but my allergic reaction begged to differ.) I lived in Texas at the time, and when I returned home, I could still eat the egg rolls there without a problem. I later moved to Tennessee and then to Los Angeles. Although I didn't keep a chart or anything, I remember that I could mostly eat egg rolls, but peanuts were encroaching on them more and more. By about ten years ago, they were such a pervasive ingredient that I always knew I had to be careful. Tennessee, at least, is no longer safe. I was looking around the Web, and the Federal Citizen Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado, even includes egg rolls as a hidden source of peanuts on its food allergy Web page. Now that I'm back in Chicago, the origin of the scourge of peanut egg rolls in my experience, I figure I can't ever eat them.
But I live in hope. We got Chinese take out last night, and the restaurant where I bought it offers two free egg rolls with orders of $15 or more. So I got them and took a bite to test. Unfortunately, it was too large a bite, so the rest of my evening was very uncomfortable, indeed. I guess I'm off even experimenting with egg rolls for the foreseeable future.
I don't know why chefs want to put peanuts in their egg rolls, but one theory I've heard is simply the rise of Thai influence. But I have an even odder question about the whole situation. My wife loves peanuts. She pretty much enjoys them anywhere she finds them. She provides me with a good warning system--if she tastes peanuts in any food we're eating, she immediately puts me on notice. She has yet to taste peanuts in an egg roll. Even after I've had an allergic reaction and can confirm their presence, she can't detect them. So if peanuts add so little to the egg roll experience that a peanut connoisseur can't even taste them, why bother with them at all? Make egg rolls inclusive again!
posted by Doug @ 12:01 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Always be careful! It could be that they are fried in peanut oil which could explain why it isn't noticed by peanut lovers. Peanut oil can be heated to a rather high which in turn may explain why it is used for quicker cooking. Check that out and see what they chefs explain.
R
The thing is, peanut oil (unless it's cold-pressed) doesn't cause allergic reactions because the allergen has been cooked out. What about peas? Maybe sometimes they're in the egg rolls. But I guess you'd be able see the peas--it's ground peanuts that you can't see.
Here is a good source for food allergy info: www.foodallergy.org/
We've been members of FAAN ever since the first of our allergic kids was born.
Through experience, I've discovered I'm not allergic to things cooked in peanut oil. Cold-pressed could still pose a problem, though, so I try to stay away from that. And besides, I'm not allergic to other fried things from the Chinese restaurants at which I can't eat egg rolls.
As for the possibility of peas, while I'm allergic to them, for some reason I get a stronger allergic reaction to peanuts, and egg rolls is the level of a peanut reaction. It's possible, though, that the offending ingredient is peanut butter, which is just as dangerous for me as peanuts themselves.
Yes, that makes much more sense. Everyone knows egg rolls are not egg rolls without peanut butter, at least in America. Peanuts in egg rolls is a stretch. But peanut butter is another story....
It's gotta be the peanut butter, especially in old-style chowmein/chopsuey places, which use it because it's an inexpensive binding agent. New-style thai and chinese cuisine often dispense with it altogether. Like the ones we had at Indie Cafe; those weren't a problem, right?
Stu
Those were spring rolls, which are different. I've encountered peanuts or peanut butter or whatever in spring rolls before, but not as often as in egg rolls. But I'm not sure it's a matter of old-style places, because for the first two decades of my life, I never had a problem eating egg rolls.
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