Not being snarky, but the deal is simply that, in difference cuisines, the same name can mean different things, particularly when that cuisine gets exported and translated into a different country.

For instance, the term 'egg roll' in particular is pretty ambiguous, and will mean different things in different countries. For instance, if you order Chinese food here in Britain, you usually won't find anything called an 'egg roll', but you'll sometimes find a 'pancake roll', whch is simliar to the thing called an 'egg roll' in American Chinese cuisine.

Oh and a summer roll is usually not fried, if that helps.

Around here if I order a vegetable roll in a chinese restaurant, I get an egg roll without shrimp. If I order a vegetable roll in a japanese restaurant, I get vegetables and rice rolled up in nori, with ginger and wasabi - sushi style.

Spring rolls in Chinese were traditionally not deep-fried. They were what some are now referring to as 'summer rolls.' Eg. A rice wrapped roll with lettuce, and chilled meat etc. served cold. In the summer, with the weather turning hot, eating 'cooling' foods was believed to keep your body in balance. So as the seasons turned to spring, people would eat 'spring' rolls to prepare their bodies for the heat ahead. But over time, some one thought what the heck, let's throw it in the deep fryer. (Being Cantonese myself, I would like to blame the the deep-fry crazy Cantonese, but I don't really know.) So, even though the healthy spring rolls originated with the Spring Season, now in North America that term is more strongly associated with the deep-fried version. Egg rolls? The fried pocket thing with bean-sprouts? It is my belief that this is a peculiar to 'fake' Chinese like chicken balls. (Not that there is anything wrong with chicken balls, as I have been known to partake in the flourescent sauce much to the chagrin of my parents.) As mentioned, there is sort of an equivalent with rolls made with crepe-like wraps, or in the North, thin rolls of egg, but not really the pocket thing with sprouts. hmm. hungry now.

Sorry must proof better. Just adding that Asia is a big, biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig place.

Thanks guys, especially typewriter. I just think it's weird that here, in San Antonio, it seems like all the "Chinese" restaurants (which also serve Thai and even Vietnamese cuisine) call them one thing and "Thai" restaurants (which also serve Chinese and Vietnamese cuisine) call them another. I haven't yet seen them served at a Vietnamese place.

Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but I always thought spring and summer rolls were NOT fried and eggrolls WERE fried. I loved eggrolls as a kid, but once I discovered spring rolls it suddenly made the greasy eggrolls seem sort of gross. When we make eggrolls at home, we bake them rather than fry them.

(slack - here, spring rolls are fried at thai restaurants and not fried at chinese restaurants. I just realized that saying "served cold" and "served hot" don't necessarily indicate fried)

I've only eaten at a Vietnamese restaurant once, but I had an "un"fried eggroll-type thingie, but I don't recall what it was called.

muddgirl - have you been to the Mandarin Buffet in San Antonio (it's one the east side of SA)? I remember it as being fairly decent food especially considering it's in Texas.