A-Z Monday - the food version! "L" is for Lumpia!

The little section of San Diego I live in is called "Mira Mesa" - loosely translate it means "flat table", or so I've been told. Our family settled here in 1973, after my Dad retired from the Air Force. Mira Mesa was just a little blip on the San Diego map way back then, but over the years it grown and is now home to over 80,000. That's a LOT of people in a little area, and a lot of those people are Asia. It is well known in San Diego that Mira Mesa has a large Filipino population, and because of that, Mira Mesa has acquired the nicknames of "Manila Mesa" and Mira Masia." I'm ok with that....I've had a lot worse nicknames in my lifetime.


Along with the influx of Filipinos in the last 30 years, there has been a large influx of Asian restaurants as well.


Let me just say this.....Asian food, and Filipino food specifically is really, REALLY yummy.


That brings me to my "L" post for the day. Ladies and Gentleman, I present to you - Lumpia!

Lumia is the Filipino version of the egg roll. It can be served as a side dish or as an appetizer, and can be filled with meat and/or vegetables. Shanghai lumpia is my personal favorite, and is filled with ground pork or beef, minced onion, carrots and spices with the mixture held together by a beaten egg. The mixture is then spooned into lumpia wrappers (similar to spring roll wrappers) and deep fried until they are golden brown and crispy. Shanghai lumpia are traditionally smaller than other lumpia, and are often about "finger" size.

Warning - they are also addicting! No one can eat just one! I buy batches of these babies when we have our big parties at the house, and we've been known to go through over 250 of them in a matter of a couple of short hours! They are always the first thing to be gobbled up.

If you live in San Diego, and need a good hook-up for lumpia, let me know...I've found a new place to get them, and man-oh-man, are they great!

OK, I'm starving now! After having read Ben's post on lasagna and now writing this, I've gotta get dinner going! If you'd like to see what other bloggers are doing for A-Z Mondays, be sure to stop by Jen's blog here!