“Lumpia” – The Filipino Eggroll

When we heard that January’s Eat the Street (ETS) food truck rally was going to have a Filipino “lumpia” theme, the kids were excited and begged me to go.

A few months ago, we moved from Waikele a nice quiet neighborhood on the Westside of Oahu. There’s a wonderful little place in the Outlet Mall called Alyssandra’s Lumpia Express that we would visit when we went shopping (mainly its me shopping and they, running around the courtyard). They’d work up an appetite and we would ALWAYS go there for a snack. Their lumpia’s were so good!

Lumpia is the Filipino version of your classic egg roll, only better. You’ll normally find 3 different kinds:

1. Pork + Vegetables
2. Pork Only (Shanghai)
3. Banana

Lumpia’s are deep fried, so of course very fatting. But I’m not here to tell you what’s good and not good for your children, I’m here to tell you what kinds of food kids love – and mine simply love them! Lou Lou and Jaf’s favorite is the Shanghai (pork) lumpia with the classic vinegar dipping sauce.

There were many vendors serving up lumpia creations at ETS, but we decided to go directly to the ONLY real Filipino food truck at Eat the Street – Elena’s Filipino Foods. We ordered all 3 versions they had on the menu;

While the “Turon with Lanka” (apple banana with jack fruit) was tasty to me, the kids weren’t too fond of it. They weren’t too fond of the banana lumpia either, because Lou Lou said, “bananas shouldn’t be fried or cooked, but peeled and eaten right away”. Hmmmm, I tend to agree. 🙂

Elena’s Shanghai lumpia, was the winner – kids said it was the best they’ve had before! We went back for another 2 plates totaling 18 pcs (they’re petite) and ate to our hearts content. The best part was all the sauces we got to try, the kids tried them all but eventually stuck with the sweet chili and the vinegar sauce.

We then ventured off to the Hawaii’s Fried Musubi truck and ordered a “Banana Cookie Butter Chocolate Lumpia”, sounds heavenly right?! It was, but it was also very big and after one bite Jaf said “that’s enough already Mom”. I disagreed and we moved on to the next…

Paul’s Poppers, had a spinach, artichoke, cheese lumpia. I didn’t have to convince them to eat one more lumpia since this one had cheese and spinach in it and they love cheese. So we ordered that too, and it was gone in 60 seconds.

Our lumpia marathon had come to a bitter sweet end. As much as we wanted to sample ALL of the lumpia creations from other vendors at ETS, our bellies were full. Perhaps we’ll make lumpia soon and post a great recipe, until then we recommend visiting Elena’s or Alyssandra’s for lumpia perfection!