In fact, the corned beef egg roll is generating enough buzz in different corners of Detroit’s food world that there’s reason to believe we might be witnessing the birth of the metro Detroit area’s next great dish. If so, that raises a few questions: What exactly is it? Where did it come from? And, more generally, what does it take for a foodstuff to become a regional dish?
As the name suggests, a corned beef egg roll consists of an egg roll wrapper rolled and folded around a small pile of razor-thin salted and cured beef. The package is then plunged into 350°F oil and cooked until crisp. Gooey, white, mild cheese, like mozzarella, and sour cabbage are typically, but not always, part of the formula. Rolls come in a range of sizes: At some places, the average customer would need two to make a meal; at others, one four-inch wrap stuffed to the seams will suffice. In all its iterations, the corned beef egg roll works because of its simplicity, relying on that old, trustworthy combination of salt and fat.
