Food Review: Tai Pei Pork Egg Rolls

So, I reviewed the Tai Pei Combination Fried Rice and with that I also tried the Pork Egg Rolls. I have never had frozen egg rolls before so this was definitely a first for me but it's an egg roll, right, so how wrong could it go?

In the package there were 9 egg rolls. Normally there is 8 however another one was in there so right away I was pleased because that was even more cost effective than I thought. In the box there was also three little packages of marina sauce to dip it in. You can cook these in the microwave for 3 minutes or throw them in the oven for 20 minutes, it's all based on preference and how hungry you are versus how long you are willing to wait to eat.

I prepared these both ways. I, first, cooked them in the microwave and my impressions was that it was mushy and not very egg roll-like. When you go to the Chinese restaurant and get egg rolls you get a crunchy exterior with a nice filling inside. This was mushy on the outside and not a lot of filling on the inside and it didn't taste much like an egg roll. The marina sauce is weird to me, when you think in reference to Chinese cuisine, so I didn't try it with that and I also didn't miss it.

After cooking in the oven, on a pizza stone, for 20 minutes you had a somewhat soggy underside and the top was a nice, golden, crunchy crust. Again, I did not use the marinara because I really didn't want to on Chinese food. The first bite was crunchy and very lovely however as the egg rolls cooled a bit they become less crunchy so you have to eat them almost right away to get the full experience.

Flavoring of the egg rolls were almost typical of a restaurant style roll. These were pork but there wasn't a lot of pork present. It seems like there were too many layers of phyllo dough and somewhat skimpy on the filling. In my honest opinion I would not want to make a habit of microwaving because the quality is greatly disturbed in this form. I mean, microwaves should only be used to nuke something for a few minutes to heat it up, not actually cook something like egg rolls. Oven was okay, I would definitely turn the rolls halfway through the cooking process to ensure that they are not soggy-ish on the bottom. I almost feel like the instructions to microwave should have been replaced by the option to deep fry. Only then would you get a real snapshot of what it's supposed to taste like. When you go to the restaurant they deep fry their egg rolls. Another change they need to possibly look in to is adding soy sauce and duck sauce in the box and nixing the marina. When I think marina I think pasta and pizza and outside of the brand of pizza named "Cheetza" (Chinese form of pizza), Chinese food is not Italian in any way.

Overall I would definitely recommend these. Good amount for a decent amount of money and it accompanies the Chinese food well. Fry it, put it in the oven, just please leave the microwave out of the process.

Rating: 8 out of 10