Nostalgic for Egg Rolls

When I was about ten years old, I discovered I had a love for egg rolls. Twin Happiness was a Chinese restaurant located in a strip mall in Crown Point, Indiana, and it was there I encountered my first real egg roll. My mother had always made those frozen, bite-sized numbers when I was growing up, and I thought they were pretty darn good (and I still do enjoy the things under the right circumstances). But these were the bee's knees - cabbage, pork, shrimp and their secret ingredient: peanut butter, all rolled up in a wanton, and deep fried into golden bliss. And they were served with a house made apricot-based sweet and sour sauce and hot mustard (there was always mustard in packets available on the table, but upon request they would bring out the good stuff that was prepared in the kitchen). They were truly delightful! Sure, I remember eating out at places like McDonald's and pizza parlors as a kid, but these egg rolls are my first memory of something I ordered at a restaurant, and thought, "Wow - food can really be amazing."

My family frequented Twin Happiness up through my high school years. And while we would try a different Chinese restaurant here and there, there were no egg rolls as good as the ones at TH. Everywhere else they were either missing the peanut butter or overloaded with carrots or too small - just not the same.

I left CP for Boston for my first year of college, and it was the same thing in the Back Bay - plenty of egg rolls, but none like TH. Upon my returns home for winter and summer breaks, I stopped in for a pair the first chance I got. Then finally, the summer after my second year of college, I applied at TH for seasonal employment, and was hired on as a server. It was perfect - the egg rolls were at my beck and call. I continued to work there on all of my breaks for the rest of my college years. After college I moved to Chicago, and continued to pay TH a visit every time I was back in town. By this point I had developed a close relationship with the owners. So much, in fact, that they closed restaurant to the public on a Saturday night so my wedding rehearsal dinner could be held there (and as I'm sure you guessed - egg rolls were on the menu that night).

A few years after my wedding, I got word that the owners had decided to close the doors at Twin Happiness. I was crushed. Where on earth was I ever going to have another egg roll as good as the ones at TH? While I have found a couple of Chinese restaurants in Chicago that come close, I have yet to find anything that hits the nail on the head. To this day, eleven years since TH closed its doors, I am still on the hunt for an egg roll that transports me back in time to that first egg roll. To the excitement I got from that first bite. To the day I realized that food can really be amazing.