''Lumpiang Shanghai'' (also known as Filipino spring rolls, or simply ''lumpia'' or ''lumpiya'') is a Filipino

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow frying used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. N ...

appetizer An hors d'oeuvre ( ; ), appetiser, appetizer or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal, or th ...

consisting of a mixture of ''giniling'' (

ground pork Ground meat, called mince or minced meat outside North America, is meat finely chopped by a meat grinder or a chopping knife. A common type of ground meat is ground beef, but many other types of meats are prepared in a similar fashion, inclu ...

) with vegetables like carrots, chopped scallions or red onions and garlic, wrapped in a thin egg

crêpe A crêpe or crepe ( or , , ) is a dish made from unleavened batter or dough that is cooked on a frying pan or a griddle. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: ''sweet crêpes'' () or ''savoury galettes'' (). They are often served ...

. ''Lumpiang Shanghai'' is regarded as the most basic type of

lumpia ''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian and Filipino cuisine, Filipino cuisines. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crêpe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or ...

in Filipino cuisine, and it is usually smaller and thinner than other lumpia variants.

Names and origin

Lumpia wrapper was introduced to the Philippines by early

Hokkien Hokkien ( , ) is a Varieties of Chinese, variety of the Southern Min group of Chinese language, Chinese languages. Native to and originating from the Minnan region in the southeastern part of Fujian in southeastern China, it is also referred ...

immigrants from

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

. The name of the wrapper is derived from Hokkien: "lun" means wet, moist, or soft, and "pia" means cake or pastry. They have been thoroughly nativized to Philippine cuisine and are found throughout the islands. They use various fillings inspired by local ingredients and dishes, and the later cuisines of Spain, China, and the United States. It is a Filipino version of

Taquito A taquito (, Spanish for "small taco"), taco dorado, rolled taco, or flauta (, Spanish for "flute") is a Mexican dish that typically consists of a small rolled-up tortilla that contains filling, including beef, cheese or chicken.Castro, Raf ...

; the name of the wrap is derived from two

words, ''lun'' meaning moist and ''pia'' meaning pastry. The early version of the wrap is made of

Tortilla A tortilla (, ) is a thin, circular unleavened flatbread from Mesoamerica originally made from maize hominy meal, and now also from wheat flour. The Aztecs and other Nahuatl speakers called tortillas ''tlaxcalli'' (). First made by the indi ...

from Spanish corn flour

Masa ''Masa'' or ''masa de maíz'' (; ) is a dough made from ground nixtamalized maize. It is used for making corn tortillas, '' gorditas'', '' tamales'', '' pupusas'', and many other Latin American dishes. It is dried and powdered into a flour f ...

until Chinese migrants opened a business in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and introduce their own version of wrap made from rice flour hence, it's called Lumpia wrapper

Lumpia ''Lumpia'' are various types of spring rolls commonly found in Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian and Filipino cuisine, Filipino cuisines. Lumpia are made of thin paper-like or crêpe-like pastry skin called "lumpia wrapper" enveloping savory or ...

itself is a combined

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Chinese Filipino Chinese Filipinos (sometimes referred as Filipino Chinese or Chinoy/Tsinoy in the Philippines) are Filipinos of Chinese descent with ancestry mainly from Fujian, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are one ...

influenced origin, brought over by migrants from

and early

colonial era. But Filipino lumpia varieties, as well as the wrappers used (which are thinner in comparison to Chinese

spring roll Spring rolls are rolled appetizers or dim sum commonly found in Chinese, Vietnamese and Southeast Asian cuisines. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably depending on the region's cu ...

wrappers) have been nativized.

Description

''Lumpiang Shanghai'' is regarded as the most basic type of

in Filipino cuisine. ''Lumpiang Shanghai'' can be defined by its use of ''giniling'' (

) as the main

stuffing Stuffing, filling, or dressing is an edible mixture, often composed of herbs and a Starch#Food, starch such as bread, used to fill a cavity in the preparation of another food item. Many foods may be stuffed, including poultry, seafood, and v ...

. The ground pork is sautéed with finely chopped

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

garlic Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plants in the genus '' Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chives, Welsh onion, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to central and south Asia, str ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classifie ...

shallot The shallot is a cultivar group of the onion. Until 2010, the (French red) shallot was classified as a separate species, ''Allium ascalonicum''. The taxon was synonymized with '' Allium cepa'' (the common onion) in 2010, as the difference was t ...

s, and salt and

pepper Pepper(s) may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plants ** Black pepper ** Long pepper ** Kampot pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanacea ...

to taste. A small amount of it is then placed on a lumpia wrapper (a thin egg

) which is then rolled around it into a thin cylinder. The ends are secured by wetting it with a bit of water or egg whites. Sometimes, the fried ''giniling'' are further moistened with raw eggs so they retain their shape better. It is then deep-fried until golden brown. It is commonly served with ''

agre dulce Sweet and sour is a generic term that encompasses many styles of sauce, cuisine, and cooking methods. It is commonly used in East Asia and Southeast Asia and has been used in England since the Middle Ages. Dickson Wright, Clarissa (2011) ''A Histo ...

'' (sweet and sour) dipping sauce (which accentuates its "Chinese-ness"). It can also use other common lumpia dipping sauces like

banana ketchup Banana ketchup, also known as banana sauce (in export markets), is a Philippine fruit ketchup condiment made from banana, sugar, vinegar, and spices. Its natural color is brownish-yellow but it is often dyed red to resemble tomato ketchup. ...

sweet chili sauce Sweet chili sauce (also known as Thai Sweet chili sauce), known as in Thailand (; ), is a popular chili sauce condiment in Thai, Afghan, Malaysian, and Western cuisine. It is commonly made with red chili peppers (often Fresno chile, Thai or r ...

, garlic

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (), colloquially referred to as "mayo" (), is a thick, creamy sauce with a rich and tangy taste that is commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, Salad#Bound salads, bound salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various o ...

, or vinegar with

labuyo ''Siling labuyo'' is a small chili pepper cultivar that developed in the Philippines after the Columbian Exchange. It belongs to the species ''Capsicum frutescens'' and is characterized by triangular fruits that grow pointing upwards. The fruit ...

peppers and

calamansi Calamansi (''Citrus'' × ''microcarpa''), also known as calamondin, Philippine lime, or Philippine lemon, is a citrus hybrid cultivated predominantly in the Philippines. It is native to the Philippines, parts of Indonesia (Borneo, Sumatra, and ...

. ''Lumpiang Shanghai'' is one of the most ubiquitous dishes served in Filipino parties, along with variations of

pancit Pancit ( ), also spelled pansit, is a general term referring to various traditional noodle dishes in Filipino cuisine. There are numerous types of pancit, often named based on the noodles used, method of cooking, place of origin or the ingredi ...

(noodles). They are commonly prepared ahead and stored in the refrigerator, and only deep-fried immediately before serving.

Variations

The basic recipe can be modified easily and is adapted to numerous variants. However, unless the variants still use ground pork as its main stuffing, the variants are usually simply referred to generically as "lumpia". Common variations include using

ground beef Ground beef, hamburger, hamburger meat (North American English), minced beef or beef mince (Commonwealth English; often just generically referred to as ground meat, ''mince'' or ''mincemeat'') is beef that has been finely chopped with a knife or ...

, ground shrimp, or shredded chicken. Other ingredients may also be added, including

green pea Pea (''pisum'' in Latin) is a pulse or fodder crop, but the word often refers to the seed or sometimes the pod of this flowering plant species. Peas are eaten as a vegetable. Carl Linnaeus gave the species the scientific name ''Pisum sativum ...

raisin A raisin is a Dried fruit, dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and South Afri ...

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, peppers, milk,

water chestnut Water chestnut may refer to either of two plants, both used in Chinese cuisine: * ''Eleocharis dulcis'', or Chinese water chestnut, is eaten for its crisp corm * Water caltrop, ''Trapa natans'', is eaten for its starchy seed See also * Chinese cui ...

s, ''singkamas'' (

jicama ''Pachyrhizus erosus'', commonly known as ''jícama'' ( or ; ; from ) or Mexican turnip, is a native Mesoamerican vine, although the name ''jícama'' most commonly refers to the plant's edible tuberous root. It is in the pea family (Fabaceae) ...

), and ''kintsay'' (

Chinese celery Leaf celery (''Apium graveolens'' Secalinum Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''secalinum''), also called Chinese celery or Nan Ling celery, is a group of cultivars of ''Apium graveolens'' cultivated in East Asian countries for their edible, ...

), among others.

Names and origin

Description

Variations

See also

References

Further reading