Sunday, December 14, 2008

Eggroll... Egg Roll... which is it?

Chinese food is a staple for college students and twenty-somethings living in the city that don't feel like cooking and really aren't in the mood for pizza. I am currently the latter, but my tale of Asian cuisine begins with the former. When I was growing up my family would get Chinese take-out every once in a while but (as I'm sure you've guessed) I was never really willing to partake. I pass part of the blame for this one on to my family who would order things like moo goo gai pan (which we affectionately called "brain") and neglected to tell me you could order certain chicken dishes without the veggies. If they came in the same container as broccoli, I wanted nothing to do with them. So I would usually be stuck getting the god-awful chicken "tenders" that truly should not have been provided for human consumption. Needless to say, that left a bad taste in my mouth - pun intended.

Hop, skip and a jump through time to my college years and my man Danny D reintroduced me to Chinese delivery... this time in the form of sesame chicken WITHOUT the broccoli. I was in love. It was meat in a delicious sauce with white rice... perfection! Since then I have continued with this order as well as a few similar ones (orange chicken, hunan chicken, etc.) and been a happy boy.

Leap forward through time once more to last night. This is me now in my "not wanting pizza" moment and my roommate came up with the brilliant idea to get delivery before heading out to a holiday party. As I stood there looking at the menu and feeling pretty proud of myself for pushing my normal limits by getting hunan beef, it hit me. I'm feeling crazy and I'm gonna go for it... "I'd like one egg roll please."

What I Like:
Fried things. Not all fried things though... I think carnivals are taking it a little too far. I mean seriously... why ruin a perfectly good Oreo cookie by frying it? Just dunk it in some milk and enjoy. I digress...What I Don't Like:
I have to say, I had no idea what was in an egg roll. Marty was going to tell me but I told him to wait until after I'd eaten it (just to be safe). He wasn't even 100% sure what all the ingredients were post-consumption I was still at a loss, so I decided to ask the experts. According to Wikipedia, the contents generally include chopped vegetables (most commonly cabbage) and some combination of meat and/or noodles. Thanks for nothing Wikipedia. Despite my Irish heritage I'm not a fan of cabbage and I could tell that was in the mix so I guess that counts for something. There were shades of red and green in there too that I don't think were for the holiday season, but I could not tell you what the hell they actually were. I'll just assume I don't like any of it.Who Made Me Try It:
This one was pretty much my own decision. I don't think Marty expected me to get past the first bite though, since he offered to finish it if I didn't like it. The Results:
I ate the whole thing! I have to say that it wasn't too bad. I think I might even get egg rolls again from time to time. I'm blissfully ignorant of the contents still so that helps, but who am I to argue with the fact that I didn't spit it out? I'm telling you folks... this blog (or web log for you non-web-savvy individuals) is opening me to a whole new world. Great... now I have that song from Aladdin stuck in my head.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you want a date, you'll have to learn to eat something...at your age most women don't want to got our for lousy pizza and chicken nuggets.

Ten Dollah Bill said...

I agree whole heartedly "Anonymous"... and I will be the first to say that being a picky eater does make dating difficult. I can find something at just about any restaurant but have to admit that I'm more interested in dating someone that can have as much fun staying in with a pizza as they can going out for wine and sushi... (applications are welcome)