Chaoshan Spring Roll

Chaoshan Spring Roll

　　Anyone who has tried "Peking Duck" is likely familiar with how the tender, fatty duck meat and crispy skin are wrapped in a piece of baked flatbread, along with sweet bean sauce, shredded green radish, scallion whites, and other ingredients, and then eaten. This outer flat piece of bread, shaped like a pancake but thinner than any other type of pancake, has logically come to be called a "spring roll." But compared to the spring rolls of Chaoshan, the "thinness" of this one doesn't even begin to compare. It would take about ten layers of Chaoshan spring rolls stacked together to match the thickness of a single Peking duck spring roll. In other words, the thinness of a Chaoshan spring roll is only one-tenth that of a Beijing spring roll. Spring rolls from various regions are also made primarily with flour as the main ingredient. Aside from the natural aroma of the dough, they don’t have any particularly distinctive flavor on their own. Their primary function is to wrap a filling of assorted delicacies, and the way they are eaten is generally similar to that of "Peking Duck." However, their fillings usually include shredded pork, shrimp, shredded mushrooms, shredded bamboo shoots, sprouts, scallion whites, and the like. More elaborate versions might also include shredded chicken. To prepare them, the fillings are first finely chopped, stir-fried, and seasoned to taste. Then, pepper sauce, plum sauce, sweet bean sauce, or similar condiments are spread on the prepared spring roll wrapper. The filling is placed on top, and the roll is either folded into a rectangular shape or rolled into a cylindrical shape before being eaten. Eating spring rolls is especially popular in Chenghai and Chao’an, while it is less common in Chaoyang and Jieyang.