We’re going to take another leap of faith and declare that at least for today, a crispy roll is also a kind of sandwich. After all, it has some dough, and stuff in the middle, so what’s not sandwich about that? This particular one is from J-Wok, an excellent Thai restaurant in downtown San Diego. The roll, as you can see from the photos, is huge so make sure you bring your hungry wagon to the table. The inside is filled with rice, and basically the same kung-pau chicken they serve as an entrée.
The rolls are good, but tend to be a bit on the dry side and in need of sauce. Luckily you can get sauces one the side if you ask, so that problem was easily solved although I wish the side sauces came with the roll by default. The rolls are served extremely hot, fresh, and crunchy. The taste can be a bit bland, due to the lack of sauce and because there is a huge amount of rice inside. They are served with a small salad on the side and the day I was eating there the friendly waitress offered me a free sour-soup for no apparent reason. Nice.
Compared to their regular entrées, the rolls are a fun change of pace and definitely worth trying out when you visit downtown San Diego.
Excellent pictures! Roll is quite big, the whole thing is wrapped to some dough (good it is thin) and then dropped to deep fryer? Rice texture looks nice but it might explain why it is dry. Do you think it is handmade dough or some filo etc?
Thanks Arto. I’m pretty sure the whole thing is deep fried, it’s extremely hot afterwards. Not sure about the dough, but since it’s super thin compared to other spring rolls, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is filo dough. I’ll try and ask next time what is it…