Burnt Lumpia: Filipino Food | Filipino Recipes | Culinary Hijinks

Cora Cooks Pancit

Some say that it's never too early to read to your child--even reading to an infant still in the womb is said to increase a baby's language skills. So when the fine folks at Shen's Books sent me a review copy of one of their latest children's books, I couldn't wait to read it to my own new baby boy.

But the book I received was no ordinary children's book. It was a children's book about Filipino culture and food!

Tinola: Filipino Chicken Soup

As new parents, the wife and I have received some child-rearing tips from, oh, just about everyone we know. I'm not saying we're not appreciative of such tips, but some of these pointers have been downright unusual. Not surprisingly, the strangest pointers have come from my own mother:

• "Make sure you massage his head so it will stay round."
• "You should leave the lights on at night when he sleeps, so he gets used to it."

I know I'm new to this whole parenting thing, but I'm perfectly satisfied with the current roundness of my kid's head, and leaving the lights on at night just makes no sense to me. Ironically enough, I can rest a beer on my own head because it's so flat, and I'm nocturnal. Strange, that.

So despite my mother's good intentions (at least I think her intentions are good), I've pretty much ignored her "sage" advice. However, there was one nugget of knowledge that spilled from my mother's mouth that did kinda sorta make sense: "Tinola is good for increasing breast milk production."

"I can produce breast milk?" I asked my mom.

"Not you, your wife!" she corrected me.

I told you, I'm new to this.

Anyways, Tinola is a simple-to-make rustic Filipino chicken soup. Like the chicken soups of most other cultures, Tinola is also known for its healing and restorative powers--helping to recover from cold and flu symptoms--this much I knew. But I had never before heard that Tinola was also good for nursing and feeding newborns.

So I wasn't sure if my mother was just perpetuating some old Filipino wives' tale, or if Tinola indeed possessed any lactic magic (I'm very pleased with myself that I came up with that rhyme). But if cooking a pot of Tinola would make things easier for my wife, and indirectly get some Filipino food into my kid, I was all for it.

18th Annual FPAC

Just wanted to give a quick heads up to my SoCal readers about the 18th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) happening this weekend (Sept. 12-13) in San Pedro, CA.

Widely known as Southern California’s largest and longest-running Filipino cultural celebration, FPAC will feature live performances by a diverse line-up. This year's headliner at FPAC will be Filipino Amercian comedian, Rex Navarrete:

Poo jokes. They never disappoint.

In addition to Navarrete, FPAC will also feature performances by Geologic, of the rising hip hop group the Blue Scholars; MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew Season 2 finalist, Supreme Soul; YouTube sensation, AJ Rafael; and pop vocalist Ashley Robles.

The two-day festivities will also include its first-ever Martial Arts Village--a small enclave in which I envisioned festival-goers battling each other with sticks and knives (Sumbrada, anyone?). However, I've been told that the Martial Arts Village will feature demonstrations by the IMB Academy and the South Bay Martial Arts Club--and that's just as cool.

And lastly, yes, there will be Filipino food at FPAC! In light of complaints for a lack of actual Pinoy food at last year's FPAC (one of those complaints being mine), I've been informed that FPAC organizers have gone the extra mile this year to include more Filipino food vendors. (NOTE: FPAC makes sure to approach a number of Filipino food vendors every year, but vendors don't always have the time or resources to participate.)

Vendors providing Filipino food at this year's festival will be Aling Neri's and The Park's Finest BBQ, among others. And another new addition to this year's FPAC will be a Filipino Cooking Demonstration Booth run by Chef Cecilia DeCastro. I imagine workshops on lumpia rolling and "How to skillfully evade kitchen criticisms from your mother" would be popular topics, but no matter what is demonstrated, I'm sure Chef DeCastro will handle the booth with professional ease.

To make sure you get in on all the action that FPAC has to offer, you can pre-order tickets for the festival here. Tickets will also be available at the entrance on the day of FPAC.

For more information on the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, check out the FPAC website here.

What: The 18th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture

When: September 12-13, 2009. 10am-6pm for both days.

Where: Point Fermin Park, 807 Paseo Del mar, San Pedro, CA 90731

Homemade Lumpia Wrappers

In case I ever get the Jones to roll up a few fatty spring rolls, I almost always have a package of store-bought Lumpia wrappers at the ready, hidden within the depths of my freezer. But after closer inspection, I found the following ingredients listed on the packaging of said wrappers:

"Bleached wheat flour (niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, reduced iron, mononitrate, folic acid), water, salt, glycerin, sorbital".

I have no idea what half of those ingredients are (isn't glycerin in soap?)! But up until very recently, the chemical make-up of spring roll wrappers was of little consequence to me. Store-bought lumpia wrappers could contain Soylent Green (mmm, soylent green) for all I cared; I was content as long as the end product resulted in crunchy and tasty lumpia.

But thanks to the help of Andrea Nguyen's newest cookbook, Asian Dumplings: Mastering Gyoza, Spring Rolls, Samosas, and More, I had a spring roll epiphany: Lumpia wrappers can be made from scratch!

Crazy right? Aside from the crepe-like skins of Lumpiang Sariwa (fresh unfried lumpia), I never considered making my own wrappers for fried lumpia. But with Andrea's fantastic cookbook, a few simple ingredients that I already had in my pantry (no glycerine necessary), and a bit of patience, I was able to fashion my own stash of homemade lumpia wrappers--thin skins that, when fried, were just as crisp and golden as their store-bought counterparts.