Lumpia

Lumpia Shanghai

One of the most famous of Filipino foods, besides adobo, is lumpia. Lumpia are small, fried spring rolls: very simple and tasty.

The most common variety of lumpia in the Philippines is lumpia Shanghai (which gives a clue to its origin.) These are filled with ground pork, minced onions and shredded carrots with a beaten egg as a binder. If a Filipino talks about Lumpia he's typically referring to lumpia Shanghai. There are vegetarian versions though, probably eaten during Lent. These may contain such things as palm hearts (ubod), mung bean sprouts (togue), shredded cabbage, carrots and/or Julienned string beans. These items may also be added to the meat mixture in lumpia Shanghai.

Lumpia, especially lumpia Shanghai, are usually quite small when compared to the typical size of Chinese spring rolls. This is so that the pork filling will be thoroughly cooked during the frying process. I think it's also just a Filipino thing as they're crispier that way.

Lumpia may be eaten with a typical soy and vinegar sauce, a type of spicy chili sauce, sweet and sour sauce, banana catsup or (most commonly) with regular tomato ketchup (catsup) as dipping sauces. They're usually eaten with rice, and may be either eaten as a finger food or cut up into small pieces then eaten as a viand with a spoon, along with some rice.

Here in Cebu no feast would be complete without certain foods: lumpia, bam-i, chop suey and lechon baboy (spit-roasted suckling pig.) A few lumpia with rice make a fine light meal all by themselves, though.