Friday, June 28, 2019

Charleston Hot Dog (sort of) Review - Eggs Will Roll

First of all, let me get this out of the way. This is not one of those posts like we do on our favorite day of the year. This is real life.

Eggs Will Roll is a Non-Traditional Egg Roll Pop Up Shop. It pops up in random places, sells a bunch of strange egg roll creations and then vanishes into the ether. Except for the outward appearance, their offerings are nothing like a traditional Chinese restaurant egg roll. They make egg rolls with fillings such as chicken and waffles, chorizo and egg, tater tots with sausage gravy and mac & cheese. One of their recurring specialties that we've heard about is their West Virginia Hot Dog roll, but due to the here today, gone tomorrow nature of their business, we've never been able to catch them to try it out.

Finally, though, we cornered them and procured the object of our desire.

We'll get to the review in a minute, but first, allow us to point out the dollop of mustard in the photo. There has been a raging debate over on the WV Hot Dogs Facebook page about the appropriateness (or more correctly, the disgusting inappropriateness) of ketchup on a WV Hot Dog. Eggs Will Roll, being high-brow culinary artists, seem to innately understand that mustard is the only acceptable condiment for a WVHD, even one that is chopped up, wrapped up in a wonton and deep fried.

But does it taste good? Does it taste like a WV Hot Dog?

We'll address the latter first: No. It tastes nothing like a WV Hot Dog. The  heat from the deep fryer makes the various elements of the filling hard to identify, so we can't be sure that it contains the right stuff, but we'll take their word for it. The finely chopped weenie is plainly visible, as is some finely grated vegetable that we assume is coleslaw. There seems to be onions, but I could see no trace of chili nor could I taste it. When dipped in mustard, the taste of the whole thing was more reminiscent of a corn dog than a hot dog.

Does it taste good? Yes. In the same way that funnel cakes taste good at a carnival, or the way a stuffed-crust meat lovers pizza tastes good when you've thrown caution to the wind, ignored your doctor's orders and just enjoyed some greasy, hot food. Sometimes you just gotta live a little.

We're happy that Eggs Will Roll honors our state's food culture with the WV Hot Dog Roll, but next time we're going to try something a little more mainstream -- like a chicken and waffle egg roll.

No Weenie Rating for this way-too nonstandard "hot dog."

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