stevez wrote:jilter wrote:Thanks for the post Cathy.
IF anyone does try any of the above, please post here your experience.
I do not know when I will have anytime soon to venture so far for eggrolls.
Jill
Someone already did. Personally speaking, there's a trip to DeKalb in my future.
Well, it took a few months, but I finally made it to Pho N Grill in DeKalb a couple weeks ago. I was expecting to find an old school Cantonese place, but instead, Pho N Grill is a very modern quick serve restaurant in a strip mall just off the tollway. Their menu lists "2. Pekin House Egg Roll (1 Piece)$1.75
"(A 60+ year recipe rated as one of the best egg rolls in Chicago by ABC news.) Cabbage, green onions, shrimp, pork mixed in our peanut butter sauce wrapped in a eggroll skin deep-fried.", as Cathy 2 pointed out upthread, but that distinction seems to be completely lost on the college kids acting as the front of house staff.
Me: Are these really the same eggrolls as they served at Pekin House?
Waiter: I don't think there was an actual restaurant, it's just a style, I think.
Hmmmm. Well, anyway, I ordered the egg rolls from this heathen and sure enough, what arrived at my table was a pretty good rendition of a Pekin House eggroll.
Pho N Grill Pekin House EggrollOK, it wasn't an exact replica, it was more of an Epcot-like simulation of a Pekin House Egg Roll. The taste was right on, but it was served with a bright cherry red extremely sweet sauce, rather than the usual clear/orange stuff, and, most importantly, it was not greasy at all.
Now, this may sound like a good thing, but anyone who's ever had an actual Pekin House Egg Roll can tell you that it was never not greasy. In fact, Pekin House Egg Rolls oozed grease (in a good way), and that had a lot to do with their taste and charm.
These sterile, strip mall versions are pretty good, though, and come the closest ever to scratching the Pekin House/Far East egg roll Jones. They sell them frozen to go, and I plan another trip out at some point to stock up.
Pho N Grill
913 S Annie Glidden Rd,
DeKalb, IL 60115
(815) 901-0374
Steve Z.
“Only the pure in heart can make a good soup.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven