How to Make Fish Lumpiang Shanghai (菲魚上海春捲)

Today is a tribute to the great party finger food, lumpia - specifically, Lumpia Shanghai. To my non-Filipino readers, I believe you may be more familiar with the term, "spring rolls" which if one really looks at the Chinese characters, 春卷 which in Mandarin is chun jian and essentially is translated from the Chinese as "spring" and "roll". From what I gather, the reason why this is so is that the delicacy is usually eaten during the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) in China. In other countries, even those with predominantly Chinese as language of communication such as Taiwan, these are called by different names such as 潤餅 "run bing" which is roughly translated as "smooth cake" or 薄餅 "boping" which is "thin cake" referring to the thin smooth crepe that makes the skin of the spring roll. Now, note that the rough Hokkien equivalent of the word 餅 ("ping" in Mandarin) is "piah" which means cake or pie. Thus, mooncakes that are eaten during the Moon Festival are called 中秋月餅 or "tsun chiew ye ping" in Mandarin or "tiong khiew ge pia" in Hokkien which translates as Middle Autumn Moon Cake. This 餅 "ping" or "pia" is the second word that "Lumpia" refers to. Whatever "lum" in Lumpia means in the original Chinese - that, I do not know. But I am speculating that it may refer to spring which is 春 or "chun" which has been bastardized to "lun" which is the usual way of the Philippine Hokkien way of saying the word. From this "lun" it was then Filipinized to "lum" making the word "lumpia". I think this is a reasonable theory as the combination of Hokkien characters would mean "Spring Cake" something which is related to the boping above (Mandarin) or Popiyah (Hokkien).

Lumpiang Shanghai. It is not actually from Shanghai but
somewhat looks like it.

 

This is the "Original" Chinese Spring Roll: Bo-Ping
(Mandarin) which is also called Po-Piyah in Hokkien.
The vegetables are cooked but the skin is not fried
and therefore "fresh".

Now, this one is "Lumpiang Sariwa" or "Fresh Lumpia"
which if one notices, is like the Popiyah.

In the Philippines, the original lumpia is actually eaten with the skin fresh loaded with a filling of vegetables starting with a bed of romaine lettuce and some stalks of cilantro for contrast. Adding some ground peanuts mixed with salt and sugar and add to that a thick brown sauce based on brown sugar with soy sauce, some chopped garlic and a dash of Chinese hot sauce, sautéed thinly sliced mixed vegetables with shrimp, pork and shredded tofu are added then rolled for a flavorful yet fresh and healthy snack. The description in itself is enough to make my mouth water. This version is called "Lumpiang Sariwa" in Filipino, translated as "Fresh Lumpia". If one looks at the Mandarin 薄餅 "boping" which in Hokkien is "Popiah", the ingredients and the resemblance are similar. The ultimate prototype of Lumpia Sariwa is served by the famous Ha Yuan Restaurant in Manila.

 

When the filling is limited to the shredded vegetables, shrimp, pork and tofu mix leaving out the rest of the vegetables and the sauces, and then rolled, sealed then fried, this is known as "Lumpiang Frito" or "Fried Lumpia". This is what's familiar to the Western palate as all of the spring rolls found here in Chinese restaurants are all fried. Usually, the size of a lumpiang frito in the Philippines could be the size of a typical Mexican burrito; however, in the States while this may be so, some have been made into smaller fingerling sizes about half of the diameter of the typical burrito. This results is a more delicate and crunchier spring roll.

Get the Lumpiang Sariwa, remove the romaine lettuce,
clialtro and peanut/brown sauce, then fry it. This
is called "Lumpiang Frito"

 

Now the Lumpiang Frito somewhat resembles the
typical Egg Spring Roll here in the States.
The skin is thicker - this is because of the
use of the thicker egg roll skin.

Anyway - another observation is the type of skin used in making spring rolls. In the Philippines, there are two types of skins. One is the batter based on the recipe for making French crepes which is made of egg, flour and water. Mixed together into a thin batter, this is ladled on a hot oiled skillet and allowed to gel and cook into a thin pancake which is then the basis of the skin. When rolled, it is a soft crepe that wraps the vegetables within. Note that this is too soft to handle and therefore, the whole lumpia is served on a plate like the French crepe is served on a plate likewise. If one notices, egg is an ingredient in making this type of lumpia skin - hence, the other name for the spring roll is egg roll or 蛋卷 ("tan jian"). The other type of skin is based on a soft dough of flour, rolled and rubbed on a hot iron surface, leaves traces of the flour dough to bake quickly much like an Indian tandoori oven leaving a very delicate thin skin made of flour which is peeled. This is the basis of the skin for Lumpia Sariwa and Lumpia Frito and incidentally is the thinner, delicate skin which when fried gives the crunchy texture of the spring roll.

This is another version of the Lumpiang Sariwa or
Fresh Lumpia using a different kind of skin
based on the egg crepe.

 

The reason why the fried spring roll in the US has a
pockmarked surface is the skin. If one notices,
this resembles the siomai wrapper.

What accounts for the more the more delicate
crunchier spring roll is the thinner version.
This is what I use.

Incidentally, when one buys lumpia wrappers in
the wet market in the Philippines, this is what
you get.

How you make the traditional lumpia wrapper is this.
Using a wet dough based on flour and water,
rub the dough against a medium hot metal surface.
The resulting thin crepe is the wrapper.



Incidentally, there is another type of spring roll skin available in the States. The egg roll skin in the States is not the same as the one based on the French crepe like in the Philippines. Rather, it’s a thicker machine pressed rolled skin that is as thick as the siomai wrapper. It's labelled as egg roll wrapper although I do not think it contains any egg but probably the original recipe of this should contain egg much like the egg noodle.

 

But going back to the sizes of the different lumpias, the smaller version of the Lumpiang Frito is what's common in the dimsum restaurants in the States. Incidentally, and a bit of a coincidence this is called 上海春捲, "Shang Hai Tsun Jian" literally translated as "Shanghai Spring Roll", known for the use of the thin version of the skin, it is fingerling size and fried to a crisp. Inside are similar to the julienned cabbage, carrots, tofu with some chicken filling found in the Lumpia Sariwa or Lumpia Frito. Now take this version, modify the filling to be seasoned ground meat, preferably pork and in some instances fish meat like that of the milkfish and serve it with a savory sweet sour sauce. This version is what in the Philippines is called "Lumpiang Shanghai". So, there you have it. You have Shanghai Spring Rolls and Lumpiang Shanghai but the latter is not the same as the former.

Lumpiang Shanghai has become the favorite party food. For one thing it’s finger food and therefore convenient for cocktails and conversations while the music is playing in the background - no need for silverware! Next, its savory and meaty. As with any Filipino culinary sensibility would reveal - anything that has meat has got to be savory and hopefully, spicy and therefore goes well with the ultimate party beverage - beer. 

Now, this is the thin skin based shanghai spring roll
served in dimsum restaurants in the US.

And now we go 360. This is the Lumpiang Shanghai which
resembles the Shanghai Spring Roll above but the
filling is meaty. Fish can also be used.

Usually, lumpiang shanghai has a pork filling which is typical of most Asian dishes although for a healthier yet equally tasty snack, fish meat could be substituted and which I used because Mikey has turned pescetarian for the past six months. (As a side note, he did lose some weight initially as he turned into a dish eater, but I think he has already plateaued. I reserved that for another discussion.) In the Philippines, this is usually Milkfish. But any other white meat fish will do - flounder, tilapia, dalagang bukid etc.

Fish Lumpiang Shanghai.

 

Ingredients.

• 1 kilo fish filets (milkfish "bangus", flounder, whitefish etc.)
• 1/2 head medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 head garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 package (25 pcs.) spring roll wrappers (thin style)

Procedure.

1. Slice the filets very thinly to facilitate mixing of the filling. Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl. Using a hand mixer and at a medium speed, incorporate all the ingredients for about a minute then increase the speed to further knead and incorporate the ingredients while disintegrating the fish meat making the mixture sticky to touch. One can stop the mixing process once this stage is reached.
2. Separate the spring roll wrappers and set aside.
3. Make an egg wash mixture of 1 beaten egg with 1/8 cup water.
4. With the egg roll wrappers set in a diamond fashion and in front of you, place about a tablespoon of the fish filling in the middle, shaped like a small cigar horizontally. Taking the two left and right corners, make sure they meet in the middle. Brush some egg wash in the southern region.
5. Fold the southern part and its corner to point northward. Brush some more egg wash on the remaining north fold. Taking the linear fish mixture now covered with the wrapper, roll northward finally sealing the spring roll.
6. Line them on a plate ready to be fried.
7. To fry, use a frying pan that could retain heat very well such as a southern skillet. The oil should be shallow covering about half of the spring roll when fried. Medium heat is desired - meaning that the raw spring roll should bubble when being fried but not instantly turn the skin brown. The browning should occur about 1 1/2 minutes later.
8. After about two minutes or so, one would notice that the upper side would become wet as the filling is cooked. The side underneath has turned about light brown. Turn the pieces and fry the other side for about another minute or so.
9. Once fried to the desired brownness, remove from oil and drain/rest on towels. Serve hot with sweet sour sauce of Thai chili sauce.

 

How to Make MaMonLuk Siomai (Really! Honest!!)

My brother once commented about ten years ago, just as when he was entering the "golden ages" that I am now just entering in (ha ha - an example of my self-deprecating humor), "You know, if someone could only serve people foods that remind them of the memories of childhood, then I think people would be happy." True? What's the reason why do we long for Selecta ice cream in the old "pre-war" label? Why do we say that Selecta ice cream these days do not taste in anyway like the Selecta of old? Why do some say that the Coca Cola of today is nothing compared to the Coca Cola in their tapered sexy 8oz bottles? In connection with this, there was a recent Coca Cola taste test I saw in a website comparing the cane sugar sweetened, bottled Coke from Mexico to the high fructose syrup version in can of the US to a panel of testers based in the US and they preferred the Mexican version more than the American one. Anyway - there is a point I want to make with all this rambling?

Siomai is what I am talking about.

My mother was fortunate enough to have bought this relic from the day when it was still new in 1959. My parents got married on December 30, 1956 and had my brother in November of 1957. My second brother was yet to be born in February 1960 so, this book definitely could be considered my second sibling older than my real one. That relic is the Manila Chronicle Recipe Book.

My mother's 1959 Manila Chronicle Cookbook.
Upper right hand corner bears her signature.

I know this is not an appetizing headline. But this was
Manila Chronicle in its heyday. I think this
story inspired "Kisapmata" that award
winning movie.

Fashioned in the style of the late fifties, the print and ads were reminiscent of the era complete with the society goings-on in the cooking world that involved the housewife one of which was even awarded a prize of a trip to New York with a five-night stay in the Waldorf -Astoria. And mind you this is way before Nora Daza, the accepted matriarch of Philippine cuisine whose first edition of her famous book, Let's Cook with Nora appeared in 1965. The Chronicle cookbook contained ads that described the products and industries available in both local and imported markets. So though it was common knowledge that there were imported products like Amana refrigerators, who knew we had our own refrigerator industry by the name of Del Rosario? I remember the days when I used to read reprints of Superman and Batman comics owned by my brother and made by the reprint publishing division of the Manila Chronicle and in their ad in the cookbook, it said that these were distributed throughout Asia including Taiwan, Vietnam etc. etc. etc. and now, its the complete opposite when we have Filipiniana books piblished by Chinese companies for sale in the Philippines.

Old San Miguel ad in 1959.

And yes, we used to have a consumer electronics industry.

The "Old" Cosmos bottle has no resemblance to
what I grew up with in the '70s. This was
the original design.

This is what I was familiar with.

My fascination with this book is endless. Though age and termites have made this book looking delapidated, the treasures I could see in it, particularly the recipes are endless. Going back again to my brother's theory that one that eats food with particular tastes and aroma from childhood would certainly be a great happy drug; I am drawing you, my readers to this one particular recipe: the Ma Mon Luk Siomai Recipe.

Don't believe it? It's right there on page 84 of the book with the words, "Sponsored by MaMonLuk Restaurant". In fact, this recipe was tried by yours truly for the very first time when I was a teen growing up in my parents house in New Manila (circa 1980s) and comparing its taste with the way MaMonLuk does its siomai now in Quezon Boulevard, I would say that this is true to the original flavor and unfortunately what is now claiming to be the legit made by MML is nowhere true to the taste as I knew it from memory.


Page 84 of the cookbook spills the beans.

See? It's true! It's true!!

The main reason lies in the amount of flour in the mixture. In the current version from the restaurant, it seems that the pork mixture contained more flour than usual that the last time I had it which was last November 2013, I remember just how pasty was the sensation on the tongue as opposed to the meaty taste and feel it should be. But what sets the orignal Ma Mon Luk siomai apart from the rest, especially the newer dimsum chains, is the fact that it was just naked meat. Scallions? No. Ginger? Not even. Sesame seed oil? Don't even think about it. Most recipes would call for these especially the legitimate Chinese cookbooks. But the Ma Mon Luk siomai does not.

Which then leads back to the reason. Historically, the siomai like other things Chinese, including the siopao and pancit in whatever form and flavor were thought of with readily available Chinese ingredients in mind. In China, that is. But when the Chinese immigrant came to the Philippines, it became impossible for them to maintain the Chinese aspect of the food but the cooks were willing to make a compromise by adopting local ingredients in the dish. Thus, the Ma Mon Luk siomai does not contain sesame seed oil or ginger or scalions. The secret ingredients became the slight sweetness of sugar, the barely notceable pungent qualities of pepper and the slight sweet yet zingy taste of chopped green onions.

The recipe is as follows:

Ingredients.

1 kilo pork, chopped
1 1/2 tablespooon white sugar
Black pepper to taste
1 - 2 tablespoon salt (original recipe is 2 tbsps but I used 1 tbsp.)
Desired amount of chopped green onions
3 eggs
4 tablespoon cornstarch

Procedure.
According to the original recipe, combine the first six ingredients then add the cornstarch to combine and incorporate some more.  I would prefer to put all of them in a mixing bowl and using a hand mixer, beat them in a medium speed to really combine all ingredients making them sticky.  Once sticky, you can stop beating the mixture and divide into balls wrapping each one with the dumpling wrap leaving top sides open.  Once everything is wrapped, steam all for twenty minutes and once cooked, let the dumplings rest for five minutes before serving with soy sauce and kalamansi or the juice of kumquats or calamondins.

 

How to Make Fishballs (魚丸)

In case you don't know, I'm in the Philippines right now as I write this entry. Because I'm back in the Bicol provinces where the internet is very much a scarcity, this entry may not even get to my readers until I get back to Manila Anyway, I'm still very much existent and the blog is very much alive.  

Streetfood in Manila. This man is
frying some fishballs which is
what today's entry is all about.

Today's entry is dedicated to street food. What composes street food is very much dependent on what people consider cheap, readily available and most of all, palatable. It must be convenient and therefore easily transportable even readily consumable right after it's bought. And over the years what is classified as street food has changed. Sushi, for example started as street food but also a snack though it could also be a meal depending on the size. And who could have thought that caviar was once considered food of the masses for it was sturgeon meat that was prized and not the eggs. Now both are considered luxurious items although the eggs are far more expensive by weight. Thanks to overfishing and the hype of caviar being paired with the ever lovely glass of the bubbly, it's practically about two hundred dollars for a spoonful, merely an ounce of the beluga when sold at end markets like Wegman's or Agatha e Valentina.  

Sushi - streetfood?! Really?!  Yes - way back in
Imperial Japan when these were first
concocted.

And who knew that the ever humble fish
egg would become a status symbol?

Fish balls is one of the grand daddies of the street food world. Unless we are going to run out of any white meat fish soon, I really don't see how we can run out of it and the price would run amuck like what happened to sturgeon caviar. With climate change and its effects on fish migration and breeding patterns, this might one day become a reality; but for the meantime, it's one of the cheapest, tastiest and most reliable street foods money can buy. And it's versatile too. Aside being served as is, it can be served as soup when boiled in water with sauteed ginger. Likewise, it's a vital ingredient in pansit and fish or seafood congee.  

This is what fishballs look like.

This recipe teaches you how to make them. With a kilo of white fish meat, some flour and green onions and carrots, you are on your way to make this delectable snack.  

To those in my audience who cannot think of the
unthinkable - well, the above is an example of
streetfood - Barbecued Chicken Intestines
(a.k.a. IUD - as it looks like an
Intrauterine Device)

And what about Barbecued Pigs Ears?

Authentic Chinese Fishballs  

• 1 kilo white meat fish fillets  
• 1/2 cup cornstarch (or half flour half cornstarch mix)                                       
• 1 tbsp green onions finely chopped  
• 1 tbsp carrots, peeled and finely chopped  
• Salt to taste (optional) 

Procedure.  

1. Wash the fillets and set aside on a colander to drain most of the water.  Slice the fillets into small pieces. 
2. Combine all ingredients in a mixer bowl and mix using a medium speed until the fish is finely macerated and the resulting fish mixture resembles that of a stiff paste.  The beating process is important to incorporate some air into the mixture making the resultant fish balls light and airy. 
3. Oil both hands and above a ready boiling pot of water, squeeze part of the mixture with one hand as the other separates it with a small spoon dropping it in the boiling water to cook for about five minutes. 
4. Drain and store in refrigerator or freezer until further use. 
5. To fry the fishballs, simply thaw some and fry until puffed.  Whether to fry until brown or not is a matter of personal preference.  Serve with dipping sauce of either vinegar with chilies or a sweet sauce composed of soy sauce, sugar, salt, water the flour or breadcrumbs as thickening agent.