Yesterday, Papa dropped by to give me some of the lumpiang togue he made at home. A week ago, my sister moved out to find her independence and for my family, this means that I won't be going home as often as I would have wanted. It's really part of adulting and I gotta look after my place since I'm halfway done paying for it. Haha.
Anyway, Papa was so excited to hand me the lumpiang togue. "I just tried making it," he said, all smiles. Since it's the weekend, its a habit in my folks' home to cook together. The last time I was home, we tried making those popular sushi bake with crab sticks, Japanese mayo, cream cheese, pepper, seaweed flakes, and topped with crab fat (yeaaaaahhhhh).
My dad didn't like it, though my mom took it with her to the office. All the time, they'd make sushi (my brother's specialty) and sometimes, baked banana bread. It's really just simple things since we're not chefs.
Anyway, back to my spring rolls. I love lumpiang togue -- it's a deep-fried vegetable spring roll stuffed with mung bean sprouts. Restaurants don't carry this since it's so homemade and togue has a short shelf span. These are often available from small eateries and comes with a nice tangy dip of diced red onion (it's simplest version).
Aside from the usual julienne carrots, finely-diced chayotte (or was it bottle gourd?), the biggest surprise for my dad's spring rolls wasn't that he cooked it well -- that's a feat in itself -- but that it has tiny bits of diced soft tofu. Yes, the soft tofu you put in traditional seaweed miso soup. And yes, he didn't fry it before including this in the stuffing, which makes the taste pretty tender and special.
He also added diced steamed chicken meat, the usual seasonings, deep-fried it, and voila -- the output was really tasty and it's exactly how it wanted it done. So I had it for brunch (he gave me three big pieces, which I devoured in one sitting).
I love spring rolls and eat 'em whatever they're stuffed with. My least favorite is the fresh lumpia that's drizzled with sweet peanut sauce, but I still eat it when I can so that goes to show how I favour these wrapped treats. My all-time favorite is of course, lumpiang togue.
With that, I think I'm going to do my dad's version at home and since next weekend is my designated grocery day, I'll make Vietnamese spring rolls too. - 09/20/2020
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