Bangkok 96 Street Food has entered the corned beef egg roll game

A veteran local chef is now offering her take on a Detroit classic. Chef Genevieve Vang of Bangkok 96 Street Food recently introduced a new corned beef egg roll to her menu at the Detroit Shipping Co. in Midtown.

Originally invented by local chain Asian Corned Beef in the 1980s, corned beef egg rolls — a fusion of Chinese egg rolls and deli corned beef sandwiches — have become a Detroit cult favorite.

But Vang, a James Beard Award-nominated chef and perennial Metro Times Best of Detroit winner thanks to her original Bangkok 96 restaurant in Dearborn, says she wanted to try something different with hers.

"It's good, they do a good job," Vang says of the OG corned beef egg rolls. "But I see more and more customers now who are seeking gluten-free foods."

Vang serves her egg rolls with a gluten-free option using a rice-based wrapper. She also makes her corned beef fresh in-house, which means it has lower sodium. The result is a lighter egg roll with a different texture — crispy, but not crunchy.

"I love the corned beef and I love the sauerkraut," she says. "It has a beautiful taste. ... It just makes my mouth happy."

(For her part, Kim White, the creator of Asian Corned Beef's original egg roll, has said she welcomes imitators. "People are thinking I should be upset about it," White's son, Hasan, previously told MT. "I'm like, no, that just means this is a really good product.")

Bangkok 96 Street Food sells both the regular and gluten-free versions of the egg rolls for $3.50 a piece. More information about Bangkok 96 Street food can be found at detroitshippingcompany.com.

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