A lumpia recipe made with love

WNYC News

The taste of a particular dish has the power to evoke flavorful memories. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is asking us to share stories about family recipes with special meaning. Today we talk to Kara DeGracia, a Queens resident whose special family recipe is Lumpia.

The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

I'm 17, and I'm from Queens, and my family is from the Philippines. The recipe that comes to mind when I think of family is Lumpia, which is a Filipino dish. They're like these little rolls with like meat and vegetables and everything. It's typically made with pork. We like to dip it in sweet chili sauce, which adds a little bit of a kick to it. Usually, during the holidays, me and my family we'll gather around in the kitchen, and I'll help my mom roll the lumpia or basic stuff, like putting the meat in the wrapper. It's like this rice kind of thing. So, when you wet it, it'll stick.

Typically, when my mom is frying the lumpia, I'll be hungry already. So, when she's making it, I'll just be snacking on it even before family has arrived. My family makes it for the holidays, but what's special, I think, about Filipino food is when you go to restaurants, it feels home-cooked and, made with love.

Back in 2020, right before the pandemic hit, I went to the Philippines, and I really enjoyed it. The food there, it was amazing. It was really nice to be able to see my family, meet some of my family members that I'd never met before, because I was born here in the city, but my mom hadn't seen them for about 15 years.

I distinctly remember our whole family, probably around 20, 30 people, sitting outside eating a lot of food, and it was really fun because there was some food that I never tried before and I actually really enjoyed. In the future, I would like to get more into cooking, and try an pass on through lumpia and Filipino dishes more of my culture. I think it would really help reflect in the next generation how close our family is.