Thursday 15 November 2007

What's my craving?

I am spoiled for choices, working in Springvale. Ethiopian, Thai, Viet, Mc Donalds.. I can get pretty much anything I want within a 5 minute drive.

But today, as I was shopping down at Springy South, I had an overpowering urge to eat......

A spring roll.

Not just any spring roll, but a Chien Wah one. One of those ubiquitous spring rolls that closely resembles a Chicko roll, but is different. Same, same but different, ya know?

Not for me, the fine, glass-like structure of spring roll pastry. I want the Chien Wah stuff... the thick, crispy but doughy stuff that takes WORK to bite through!! Not quite the CHIKO pastry, but close.. kinda all lump and nodule-y.. like spring roll pastry with acne. Or Lupus. Or Scurvy.

And the filling!!! I want mass boiled cabbage held together with a cornflour glaze. I want it tasteless and hot..I want to KNOW that it's cabbage, but not be able to identify one single, solitary piece of glassy vegetable-like structure. I want my glaze eerily ejaculation grey-white.

And I want it deep fried and then left in a baine marie for a couple of hours. Cos otherwise you get the crispy ends and the soggy middle. And god forfend that you get a cold bit of filling in the middle.

An hour or two in the baine marie ensures the filling is uniformly hot throughout the roll.

And I want it to ooze fat. I want the Chien Wah bag to be opaque by the time I'm half way thru it. I want it to dribble down my chin. I want to spend all afternoon tonguing a coating of grease off my teeth.

I want to be able to solve the world energy shortage with the oil in my roll!!!

And why?|

Why do I want this??

Is it a reaction to the divine-ness of the bounty the other night at the Bloggers Banquet???

NO!!!

It's for two reasons.

The first bite... and the last.

In a perfectly cooked Chien Wah Spring Roll, the way the pastry is folded, gives you a perfect crispy bite at both ends.

Unlike a Chicko which cannot be said to be perfect unless the hot **ahem** "vegetable" filling has oozed out thru the bottom.

I googled madly for an image, but alas, all I could find were "nice" spring rolls. Obviously us connoisseurs of the darker side of life keep their addictions secret. I mean, in the whole WWW I couldn't find one single picture of one.

If you are of a certain age, and live in Melbourne, OZ you know of what I speak.

And I bet you're craving one right now.....

Le Sigh.

I settled for a 99% fat free soup from the IGA.

9 comments:

stickyfingers said...

Are you **she looks around furtively** premenstrual? I get overwhelming fat cravings at a certain time in my cycle and there's a day each month where all day, like Duncan, I want to eat nothing but chocolate.

Cindy said...

House says, "It's NOT lupus!"

Not sure whether or not I'm of an age, but I know those two crunchy bites.

Anonymous said...

Looks like I'll have to make a trip to Melbourne!!!
Razzle

Vida said...

First and last bite only, not to keen on the middle section... when it's my time of the month, I need SALT, truckloads which of course bloats me which just goes around and around, a no win situation!! Vida x x x

Kristin said...

Yum,
yum, yum.
I have similar cravings. That pastry (whatever it's illness) is lovely when it crunches.

I just found your blog, btw, and i'm really enjoying it.

thanh7580 said...

PG, I didn't know you worked in Springvale. We definitely should catch up for a meal after work as I drive past Springvale on my way home from work.

What say you that we meet for a meal one day?

Anonymous said...

You're all mad!

That crap will kill you .... dead ... LOTS!

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Is Chien Wah Spring roll fully vegetarian?

Amanda said...

Amazing, I just had two for dinner. A big night will do that. How's this, according to "nutritional" values on the paper bag there is only 1318kJ in a roll. Less than a cheeseburger. Surely this is before frying???