A Chinese Specialty Meets Soul Food With This Culinary Mashup
Here’s the backstory on the soul roll
No one knows for sure who first conceived of putting soul-food ingredients in an egg roll wrapper and frying it, but once you have one, it’s hard to doubt the brilliance of this funky culinary mashup.
The “soul roll” is popular with caterers, food trucks, home cooks, and restaurateurs alike. I ate my first soul roll in the late 1990s at a swanky soul food restaurant in New York City called the Shark Bar.
After taking a bite of the fried puff pastry filled with baked chicken, black-eyed peas, collard greens, and rice, I was floored. Now that I’ve learned more about the cultural connections between African Americans and Chinese Americans, I couldn’t help but wonder what took so long.
The seeds for the soul roll were planted as late as the 1880s, when Chinese immigrants in places like New York City, Washington, D.C., and the rural South welcomed African Americans into their restaurants for full-service meals. Such hospitality was a sharp contrast to white restaurateurs, who limited Black customers to takeout orders. The opportunity for a sit-down meal, often in a nice setting, allowed Chinese restaurants to proliferate in Black neighborhoods. African American palates were amenable to Chinese food because…
