Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Where are all the egg rolls??

That was my question.
After stopping at THREE grocery stores in one day.







I wanted egg rolls to go with this recipe which we love... but a fresh egg roll on the side makes it complete!

So I had egg rolls on my shopping list, and was surprised to not find any at the store I usually shop. Last time I bought them there, it was in the fresh deli section (to buy & bake yourself), but there weren't any in the freezer section this time either.

I was disgruntled at needing to stop somewhere else for one thing, nevertheless I stopped at the grocery store across from our church, a trip that lasted at least 30 minutes with two girls in tow. Nada. Zip. Zilch. I went through the fresh deli section THREE times, and do you know what I did find a whole case of every time I circled the section? Sushi. All kinds and shapes and sizes. But no egg rolls. The freezer section wasn't any better after two trips around it as well, except for a box of weird-looking mini egg rolls that looked more like Totino's Pizza Rolls (not at all what I was hoping for!)

Now I was just plain frustrated. And determined.

I was about to stop in at the good ol' takeout place for the "real" thing, but dinner still wasn't for a few hours and I didn't really want to have to reheat takeout rolls (I prefer to bake them fresh).. so as I got out of the car in their parking lot, the grocery store two doors down challenged me to find just what I need...

Do you know what greeted me as I walked into the fresh deli section? Another full case of sushi.

Arg!!! The world cannot have come to this! How could anyone think sushi is the appropriate side dish for sweet and sour chicken, or broccoli beef stir fry?!? OR that we no longer are in need of an occasional egg roll now that the sushi trend has taken America by storm?!?

Aha! What is this my eyes fall upon, literally in the last case of the last aisle of the freezer section? A single egg roll selection, squeezed between stuffed jalepenos and some other fancy appetizers!

Clutching my box, I ran to the registers, where a young man asked me, "Did you find everything you needed today?"



A quick note on the recipe linked above:
I substitute a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix for the cabbage & carrots in the recipe, which makes it much faster to put together.

Enjoy.

And if you want to buy egg rolls to go along with it, save yourself more time by serving sliced pineapple instead.

5 comments:

rentz said...

The recipe sounds yummy. The day frustrating. I make my own egg rolls. Very easy and my family loves them.

Rebekah said...

hmmmm... I just may have to learn how to make my own, as I will not be repeating this crazy search again!

Audra said...

Around here the only ones you can buy in the store are very weird with some meat substitute stuff. Really bad! I make baked egg rolls adapted from allrecipes.com. Instead of frying just brush with oil and bake at a high temperature. Not quite like fried but much less messy and greasy. Try it!

Rebekah said...

Audra, that is exactly what I was thinking of trying! I don't like deep frying, nor do I have a deep fryer.

Now tell me, can I get egg roll wrappers at Walmart? If not, I'll have to make another trip :)

Audra said...

Hey! I get my egg roll wrappers at Walmart in the produce section, they are in the case with the tofu. I am about to post my egg roll recipe. Check it out!