I woke up with great anticipation. It was Easter and time for the downtown Egg Roll. Yes, Mammy put on her finest bonnet, while I put on my finest John Deere cap, and we headed down to center city Pottsville for the time honored tradition of dining at the local Chinese Restaurant for an “all you can eat buffet” and pig out on egg rolls. After the appetite stimulating Easter Parade, of course.
I remember when Chinese food came to Pottsville. It was in the early 1970s, when both Mao on the mainland and the Mayor of Pottsville declared a “Great Leap Forward” for their people. In Pottsville that meant a massive sidewalk expansion project. But to widen sidewalks or just to leap in any direction required food. The Mayor and the Chinese quickly signed a trade agreement.
We would get Chinese food and they would get Ying Ling beer.
Wonton Soup arrived first. The tanker docked along the River in Mount Carbon and the Cantonese dumplings were rapidly taken by truck to “The House of China” which had just opened at the corner of Third and West Market Street to the awaiting festive crowd that was serenaded by the Third Brigade Band's rousing rendition of “Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting.”
I remember when Chinese food came to Pottsville. It was in the early 1970s, when both Mao on the mainland and the Mayor of Pottsville declared a “Great Leap Forward” for their people. In Pottsville that meant a massive sidewalk expansion project. But to widen sidewalks or just to leap in any direction required food. The Mayor and the Chinese quickly signed a trade agreement.
We would get Chinese food and they would get Ying Ling beer.
Wonton Soup arrived first. The tanker docked along the River in Mount Carbon and the Cantonese dumplings were rapidly taken by truck to “The House of China” which had just opened at the corner of Third and West Market Street to the awaiting festive crowd that was serenaded by the Third Brigade Band's rousing rendition of “Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting.”
You have to remember; back in the 1970s the main foods consumed in Pottsville were Coney Island hamburgers (with the chili sauce), pepperoni pizza, firehouse mackerel (for breakfast of course) and Mootz peanut rolls. The most foreign food to enter the city was the bleenie, which was eaten only after a large consumption of lager ale while at a block party. Generally the person eating the bleenie would not even realize what he or she had eaten until the following morning. The Mayor wanted Pottsville to become a more cosmopolitan and worldly city and he thought the introduction of foreign foods would speed up this process.
After several weeks the populace got acclimated to the Wonton soup, even though some thought they were consuming soggy pierogies. Next, sweet pork was slowly initiated, to be then followed by sour pork.
When the sour pork was introduced, it lead to heated arguments. The fighting lasted for days. Which was tastier – the sweet or the sour? To settle the feud, the Director of the Pottsville Incubator was summoned and with a massive infusion of federal Revenue Sharing dollars, “sweet and sour pork” was created.
The standoff was ended.
Skeptics wondered how pork could be simultaneously sweet and sour, but thanks to the Incubator Project, what was once considered impossible became a reality. Future generations of diners would enjoy the diametrically opposed flavors simultaneously.
To commemorate the occasion, the Pottsville Incubator Building boasts a historical marker, proclaiming to be the birthplace of Sweet and Sour Pork.
That brings me back to the Egg Roll.
I had long been a fan of foreign foods, such as kielbossi and halushki. I was also there when the egg rolls were delivered to Pottsville for the first time in the cover of darkness. The egg roll changed my life forever. While there is no egg in egg plant, the egg roll I tasted that night did have a somewhat eggy taste. Yet after ripping it apart I did not find any egg. How this could be accomplished baffles me to this day.
I could not stop at just one and ate at least a dozen.
You may be thinking what my tirade has to do with Easter and the celebratory egg roll of your forefathers and foremothers which involved real physical activity.
.
Yes, there used to be egg rolling in Pottsville, back in the Depression days of Mayor Lord, when children would gather downtown and, without using hands, push hardboiled eggs up to the East Side swimming pool. A precursor to youth soccer.
I was told that the trick to winning the event was to have the shell removed from your egg before rolling.
Now egg rolling is a thing of the past; children prefer to do their egg rolling electronically, using their expensive hand held Wii virtual egg rolling games.
I have no Wii and I don’t want a Wii. Besides after eating so many egg rolls, and after so many years of marriage, the only physical event that Mammy and I partake in is egg tapping. This game is simple: two contestants each hold an egg and the eggs are tapped together and the goal is break open the shell of the other.
Try it some time. Happy Easter.
Skeptics wondered how pork could be simultaneously sweet and sour, but thanks to the Incubator Project, what was once considered impossible became a reality. Future generations of diners would enjoy the diametrically opposed flavors simultaneously.
To commemorate the occasion, the Pottsville Incubator Building boasts a historical marker, proclaiming to be the birthplace of Sweet and Sour Pork.
That brings me back to the Egg Roll.
I had long been a fan of foreign foods, such as kielbossi and halushki. I was also there when the egg rolls were delivered to Pottsville for the first time in the cover of darkness. The egg roll changed my life forever. While there is no egg in egg plant, the egg roll I tasted that night did have a somewhat eggy taste. Yet after ripping it apart I did not find any egg. How this could be accomplished baffles me to this day.
I could not stop at just one and ate at least a dozen.
You may be thinking what my tirade has to do with Easter and the celebratory egg roll of your forefathers and foremothers which involved real physical activity.
.
Yes, there used to be egg rolling in Pottsville, back in the Depression days of Mayor Lord, when children would gather downtown and, without using hands, push hardboiled eggs up to the East Side swimming pool. A precursor to youth soccer.
I was told that the trick to winning the event was to have the shell removed from your egg before rolling.
Now egg rolling is a thing of the past; children prefer to do their egg rolling electronically, using their expensive hand held Wii virtual egg rolling games.
I have no Wii and I don’t want a Wii. Besides after eating so many egg rolls, and after so many years of marriage, the only physical event that Mammy and I partake in is egg tapping. This game is simple: two contestants each hold an egg and the eggs are tapped together and the goal is break open the shell of the other.
Try it some time. Happy Easter.
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