{"id":23606,"date":"2021-03-18T09:03:30","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T16:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=30000019139"},"modified":"2023-03-19T23:36:09","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T06:36:09","slug":"her-eccentric-egg-rolls-turned-her-into-royalty-now-tarella-golden-is-looking-for-a-kitchen-to-reign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/her-eccentric-egg-rolls-turned-her-into-royalty-now-tarella-golden-is-looking-for-a-kitchen-to-reign","title":{"rendered":"Her eccentric egg rolls turned her into royalty, now Tarella Golden is looking for a kitchen to reign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Side StrEATS: Tarella Golden of Rella Rolls is the eggroll queen\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AToXbQIv7mM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Walking into Tarella \u201cRella\u201d Golden\u2019s apartment, it\u2019s easy to see why the self-proclaimed \u201cEgg Roll Queen\u201d is looking to move into a restaurant space ASAP.<\/p>\n<p>Her small kitchen barely offers enough room to turn around, the fridge is packed to the brim with containers holding fillings for her deep-fried delicacies: a tupperware container filled with sauteed cabbage and carrots, garlic sauce for her garlic-lobster rolls, and an assortment of veggies, chicken, steak.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t sell \u2018em from my house for too long, I need more space,\u201d said Golden, who is currently in the market for a move-in ready restaurant space, ideally in North Long Beach, where she grew up and currently lives.<\/p>\n<p>She learned how to make egg rolls from her mother, who herself was taught by their neighbors while the family lived in Hawaii for several years when Golden was a toddler.<\/p>\n<p>The Golden\u2019s neighbors were an international bunch: a woman from Japan, a man from the Philippines, his Guamanian wife. They all made some form of egg rolls at home, sharing them with their friends, including Lorna Golden, Rella\u2019s mother, who fell in love with her Japanese neighbors&#8217; harumaki and the Guamanian woman\u2019s lumpia.<\/p>\n<p>They were happy to show her how each was made, Lorna Golden remembers, and eventually, she created her own fusion version at home. \u201cWhat I did is I just took it from both of them: a little bit from one, a little bit from the other,\u201d she said. Then, she began practicing. \u201cI just kept doing it and doing it, so I wouldn\u2019t forget how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Soon, she enlisted her daughter in the effort. \u201cShe was watching, so I figured: I might as well teach her how to do \u2018em, help me out a bit,\u201d Lorna Golden said, laughing at the memory. \u201cI was 5 years old, sitting at the table, rolling them,\u201d Rella remembers.<\/p>\n<p>Two decades later, Rella was volunteering at the Love and Unity Christian Fellowship in Compton when she brought a few home-made rolls to church to feed her fellow volunteers in the media department. They were an instant hit. \u201cYou should sell these, you could make some money,\u201d she remembers her supervisor saying.<\/p>\n<p>She was reluctant at first. Making a business out of egg rolls? No thanks, she thought. Working as a special education aide with the Bellflower School District and taking community college classes, all while living with her mother in a trailer park in Hawaiian Gardens, she had enough on her plate.<\/p>\n<p>But the thought kept nagging at her. One day, after coming home from church, she sat in her room, unable to shake the unrelenting chorus in her head: sell egg rolls, sell egg rolls, sell egg rolls.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10000040562\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10000040562\" style=\"width: 1110px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10000040562 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/03\/0305-Rella-8-1110x741.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1110\" height=\"741\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10000040562\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wearing gloves, Tarella Golden prepares a shrimp and garlic egg roll. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThat was powerful, I couldn\u2019t control my own thoughts,\u201d she remembers thinking. \u201cThat\u2019s God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She began experimenting with different fillings, teaching herself how to make every single one of them. When she had the idea for her garlic lobster rolls, for example, she realized: She had never even touched a lobster before.<\/p>\n<p>So she bought a lobster tail and began watching YouTube videos to figure out how to break the meat out of its shell. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how long to cook it, nothing,\u201d Golden said. \u201cSo I taught myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Customers come to her specifically for her creative fillings. Recording artist Marcus \u201cMaxLux\u201d Boyd is one of Golden\u2019s long-time fans. She\u2019s catered his baby shower, the set of his wife&#8217;s TV show, private parties, you name it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll you gotta do is put an egg roll in somebody\u2019s mouth and they\u2019re hooked,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re that good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His favorite filling: chicken and waffles. \u201cShe\u2019s gonna put Roscoe\u2019s out of business,\u201d he joked.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past seven years, Golden has developed over 30 fillings for her rolls, of which she makes and sells two to three dozen per week, taking orders via phone or through her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RellaRolls\">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/rellarollsgourmeteggrolls\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/a> accounts. Gumbo, peach cobbler, pastrami and cheese\u2014no dish is safe from her egg-rolling hands.<\/p>\n<p>At first, her mother Lorna didn\u2019t think the experimental fillings were a good idea. \u201cI thought she was crazy, I said: &#8216;Girl, you can\u2019t do all that stuff!&#8217;\u201d the elder Golden remembers telling her daughter. But the flavors quickly won her over too, and Rella keeps coming up with more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh, I have so many, so many more egg rolls in my head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But first, she needs a bigger fridge, some more countertop space, a larger stove, in short: a professional kitchen. And the dream of having her own storefront, maybe even a food truck to match, finally seems attainable. In February, Golden won $100,000 on CBS\u2019s \u201cThe Price Is Right.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The producers of the show reached out to her after seeing her videos on social media. When she came in to audition, she was brimming with excitement. \u201cThey said they want high energy, high energy, high energy,\u201d she remembers. \u201cAnd I was like: I got this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After guessing the correct price for a bottle of ice tea, a box of frozen waffles, Scotch tape and the like, Golden went home with a seed investment in her business and a promise from the producers. \u201cThey told me that when I get my food truck, I can bring it onto their lot whenever I want to,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But first, Golden has to find the right location for her business. Currently, she has her mind set on a former Chinese restaurant in Bixby Knolls. \u201cI gotta start somewhere, you know?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past seven years, Golden has developed over 30 fillings for her rolls, of which she makes and sells two to three dozen per week, taking orders via phone or social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":71503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,32101],"tags":[30566],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[19282,31611],"class_list":["post-23606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-side-streats","tag-side-streats","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/270"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72598,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23606\/revisions\/72598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23606"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=23606"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}