East Meets West with the Cheese Steak Egg Roll

Egg rolls — or as we Filipinos call them, lumpia — eaten all over southeast Asia. When Mom asks me what I’d like to have for my birthday dinner, I usually ask for “Filipino comfort food”, and lumpia is pretty much guaranteed to be on the menu.

Those of you who aren’t familiar with my personal history might be surprised to learn that for a couple of years, I lived just outside Philadelphia in the suburb known as Wayne. Hoagies and cheese steaks give me a feeling a childhood deja vu.

All this is why I the cheese steak egg roll, pictured below, warms the cockles of my east-meets-west heart.

A cheese steak egg roll with the proper cheese: “Whiz”.

It seems like the sort of thing you might end up seeing put together on an episode of Iron Chef America. It’s available at Barnaby’s of America, where it’s described on the menu as:

A blend of grilled chicken breast, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese, red onions and our house recipe hot sauce, rolled in a crisp egg roll wrapper, served with a chipotle ranch dipping sauce. $7.99.

Here’s what the Slashfood article on this culinary creation has to say:

A unique mashup of local Philly cuisine with classic American-Chinese food, I present you with the Cheesesteak Egg Roll (served with a side of Whiz). At first I disdained the side of Whiz, thinking that the inner cheese should be sufficient, but after the first taste, I was a convert (cheesesteaks are the only food item on which I eat Cheese Whiz without shame). Horrible for your arteries but wonderful to the taste buds, I think I’ll be ready for another…in about a year.