Our Taste of Home: Lumpia
By Kaelani Reyes
On occasional weekends, my father would walk into my room and yell “Wake up! Time to make the lumpia!” During those moments, I knew that the holidays were coming up.
As a family tradition, we dedicated one weekend morning to make over 100 lumpia. If you are unfamiliar with this dish, lumpia are various types of spring rolls, typically found in the Philippines. This Filipino dish always makes an appearance on a dining table for every occasion (birthdays, holidays, family gatherings). Lumpia is typically an appetizer dish. People gravitate towards this savory snack, enjoying the happiness it gives them before the main dishes are served. It creates that initial excitement that the celebration has started.
Image from Baker, Liren. Lumpia Shanghai - Filipino Spring Rolls (Lumpia). 2015. Kitchen Confidante, https://kitchenconfidante.com_lumpiang-shanghai-filipino-spring-rolls-lumpia-recipe”
My father inherited my grandmother’s recipe and of course added his own personal twist. They are often made of a thin-paper like or crepe-like pastry skin called “lumpia wrappers.” They are typically filled with any meat of your choice and vegetables, but at times they can also be sweet—in other words they are ultimately delicious. My family’s recipe consists of ground pork, garlic shrimp, carrots, and onions (highly recommend!). But this shows that so many variations can be created, allowing anyone and everyone to have their own personalized lumpia.
Around middle school, my father taught me how to make lumpia. Constructing the perfect lumpia takes time and practice. There needs to be a perfect amount of filling, enough egg wash to seal the wrapper, and of course you have to make sure that you roll the lumpia tight enough so it won’t break open when you fry them. For many years, my father and I had an ongoing joke about how I was the rookie of the family because I was stuck with the most mundane task: my job was to simply separate the wrappers.
At the time, my parents and I gathered around the dining table, since my brother was too young to help out in the kitchen. We had a routine: I separated the wrappers and my parents rolled the lumpia. By the end of the morning my parents and I would fill up about four large Ziploc bags with lumpia and store them in the freezer. When the appropriate time came around, we could quickly deep fry them.
Even though I was stuck with the most mundane task, that quality time in the morning is something that I will always cherish. Food is one thing that brings my family together. And although this is a simple dish, the amount of time and effort that is put into making lumpia makes them even more special. I hope to share this tradition with my own family one day, making lumpia a dish that tastes like home.