We were so busy thinking about buying our son another birthday cake so we can have our private ‘blowing candle’ celebration. Private meaning just the 3 of us. He already had 1 with our family back home and another one w/ his classmates on his 1st day of school this year. We were almost done w/ eating the cake after an afternoon stroll at the Chinese military museum when I realised it is actually somebody else’s birthday! Good thing I had some party stuff to cook. Lumpiang shanghai and pancit bihon!

Haha! Now I can cook lumpiang shanghai anytime I want to. I managed to find a store that sells the kind of wrapper I need. This is China and I am sure everybody thinks it’s easy to find. I guess all those restaurants make their own wrappers. I normally find the thick type they use to wrap peking ducks (or Beijing ducks).

Ingredients:
1/2 kilo minced pork
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup finely chopped carrot
1 egg
freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
few drops of sesame oil (got this from the Pinoycook)
lumpia wrappers (spring roll wrappers)

In bowl, combine all the ingredients except the wrapper. Fry 1 tbsp of the mixture to taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Spread 2 tbsp of the mixture on the wrapper like you are spreading cheesewiz on your bread as shown. (I got this style of wrapping the lumpia filling from a colleague of mine years ago.) Fold the side nearest to you towards the middle, tuck in the sides then roll firmly away from you. Seal the edge with water.

Heat enough cooking oil and fry the rolls one by one over medium heat until golden brown. Fry about 4-5 pieces at a time. In my case when the wrapper here couldn’t be sealed w/ water, I lower each one carefully making sure that the folded edge is in the bottom.

Cut each lumpia into 2 and serve them with sweet & sour sauce or in my case… just ketchup as they like ‘em.

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.