Tuesday, October 07, 2008

lumpia history and its popularity

My baby's favorite Filipino dish is Lumpia so I always make lumpia for him whenever his home from work. It is one of my in laws favorite too, so it's everybody's favorite. I'm glad that here in the United States especially in our place,we have an asian store here to where I can get all the ingredients I need when im cooking lumpia. Just a thought,where does this word lumpia came from and what does it mean?

Lumpia/h are pastries of the Philippines and Indonesia of Chinese origin and are similar to spring rolls. The term lumpia derives from lunpia (traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: rùnbǐng; POJ: jūn-piáⁿ, lūn-piáⁿ) in the Hokkien language. The recipe, both fried and fresh versions, was brought by the Chinese immigrants from the Fujian province of China to Southeast Asia and became popular where they settled in the Philippines and Indonesia. In the Netherlands, it is spelled loempia which is the old Indonesian spelling for lumpia and has also become the generic name for "spring roll" in Dutch. A variant is the Vietnamese lumpia, wrapped in a thinner piece of pastry, in a size close to a spring roll though the wrapping closes the ends off completely, which is typical for lumpia.

Indonesian

Lumpia Basah

It literally means "wet spring roll" which means spring roll without frying. It is similar to the Vietnamese spring roll with bean sprouts, carrots, shrimp and/or chicken, and served with sweet tauco (another Hokkien word for salted soybeans) sauce.

Lumpia Semarang

Named after the capital city of Central Java in Indonesia, Semarang. It was created by Chinese immigrants in the city of Semarang. It is filled with bamboo shoots, dried shrimp (ebi in Indonesian) chicken and/or prawn. It is served with lumpia sauce that is made from dried shrimp (optional), coconut sugar, red chillies, bird's eye chilies, water, ground white pepper, tapioca starch and water and can be served in either fried or unfried condition.

Filipino

Lumpia Hubad

Lumpiang Hubad literally means naked spring roll. It is basically an unwrapped Lumpiang Sariwa (without the crepe).

Lumpiang Sariwa

Lumpiang Sariwa, or fresh spring rolls in English, consist of minced ubod (heart of palm), flaked chicken, crushed peanuts, and turnips as an extender in a double wrapping of lettuce leaf and a yellowish egg crepe. The accompanying sauce is made from chicken or pork stock, a starch mixture, and fresh garlic. This variety is not fried and is usually around 2 inches in diameter and 6 inches in length; it is also the most popular among the Filipino variants.

Lumpiang Shanghai

This type of lumpia is filled with ground pork, minced onion, carrots, and spices with the mixture held together by beaten egg. It may sometimes contain green peas. Both lumpiang shanghai and the sweet and sour sauce are served with attests to the Chinese influence. This variety is by standard an inch in diameter and approximately 4-6 inches in length. However, most restaurants and street vendors often serve lumpia shanghai in smaller diameters, typically one-half to three-quarter inches, and is served with a spicy sauce instead of a sweet and sour sauce.

Lumpiang Prito

Lumpiang Prito literally means fried spring roll. It consists of a briskly fried pancake filled with bean sprouts and various other vegetables such as string beans and carrots. Small morsels of meat or seafood may also be added. Though it is the least expensive of the variants, the preparation – the cutting of vegetables and meats into appropriately small pieces and subsequent pre-cooking – may prove taxing and labor-intensive. This variant may come in sizes as little as that of lumpiang shanghai or as big as that of lumpiang sariwa. It is usually eaten with vinegar and chili peppers, or a soy sauce-and-calamondin juice mixture known as toyo-mansi.

Lumpia has such enduring popularity that one can see at least one variant in almost any set of Filipino or Indonesian festivities. Its distinct taste and ease of preparation (the Shanghai variant at least) has caused it to be one of the staple food products on the menus of many Filipino restaurants in the United States, including Jollibee and Chowking.




No comments: