Roots and Recipes: Pork Lumpia Final Essay

            It’s another one of my family gatherings, and one of the first things I would look for would be my mother’s pork lumpia, but of course there would be no surprise if there were any.  I made my plate and sat down on the table enjoying my food. Minute by minute my plate slowly became empty. Swallowing my last piece of my mother’s scrumptious pork lumpia, everything froze and with a blink of an eye I could see myself in my old, blue, teddy bear decorated room. I quickly got up and searched the house trying to find the rest of my family members, but no one was home. Living in a house, which is 10 steps away from my grandmother’s house, I go there to search for my parents. As I opened the door, I see my sister, my mother, and my grandmother sitting together on a table preparing to make lunch for the entire family. Curiously, I asked them what they were making. My mom replied saying that they were cooking pork lumpia as one of the dishes for our family lunch.  I had no idea what this “fork lumpi” was but still being half asleep I head to the couch to watch some television.

            Watching my favorite television show “Tom & Jerry” was my perfect way of spending my Christmas vacation in the Philippines. But then it stopped; my grandmother’s frying pan was making all these ticks and oil popping sounds that distracted me from my show! Irritably walking towards the kitchen I asked her why there were so much noise. “How do you think we’re gonna cook lumpia with out making noise, Nash!”  Without caring, I walked away, but stopped as I smelt the most heavenly smell of my grandmother’s cooking. My mother called me and my other family members to the table and said our grace and began to eat. My dad prepared my plate with rice and passed it to me. My mother on the other hand, asked my what I wanted to eat. Seeing all the different types of food on the big, round, wooden table I would see foods like pancit, spaghetti, soup, and steak, I asked my mom for whatever grandma was cooking, since that was the dish that caught my attention. She agreed and placed four pieces of lumpia on my plate and on the side she added some sweet chili sauce.  I thanked her and began to eat. At the first bite, I froze; I just remembered it was really hot. But as it got cooler, the flavor started to get to me. It tasted marvelous; it’s golden brown wrap containing the perfectly spiced meat, dipped in the sweet chili sauce made me take bigger bites until I finished my plate. I quickly asked my mother the name of this dish again. “I knew you would like it Jonas! It’s called pork lumpia!” “Why is it called lumpia?” I asked her. “ Since the original dish is Lumpia Shanghai, my grandfather’s mother was Chinese, who passed down the recipe all the way to us.”
             But back to present day, I sat on my seat and asked my mom why this dish so special to our family. “Well, besides the flavor and mouth watering taste, it makes a great finger food, it’s easy to make, and it’s perfect for bringing to celebrations. Also, even before you were born my dad use to cook this for me as a child, so I decided I should cook it for my kids too!” “Do you know how old you were when you first tried this food?” “I believe I was pretty young, I think I was 6 or 7 when I first tried it.” As we were cleaning up the table, I asked my mother when she would make this spectacular dish again. Laughing with a big smile on her face, she told me that since this dish is so simple to make, she would surprise me with it.