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LumpiaPalooza: Wichita, Kansas falls in love with a Pinoy favorite
The city of Wichita in Kansas, USA has met the Filipino lumpia and they reportedly cannot get enough of the stuff — the fried treats are selling so fast, owners Cynthia Wilson and Craig Bjork are considering making the customers roll their own orders.
In a report by Denise Neil for The Wichita Eagle, Wilson was quoted as jokingly saying, “I’ll think, ‘If you keep ordering lumpia like this, you’re going to be rolling it, bucko.’”
To meet the demand, Wilson and Bjork have at one point hired the Maize High competitive cheerleading squad, clients from Goodwill Industries, youth group members from church, and even their close friends — plus their close friends' moms.
Lumpia is a staple in the couple's restaurant Parsnipity Cafe.
Neil in a separate report said that Wilson fell in love with lumpia in Hawaii, a state with a huge Filipino community.
"Lumpia was at every single party and every single potluck," she said. "I just loved it ... I continued to make it throughout the years, and every time I took it to a party, it would be gone in minutes."
Since then, Wilson and her team have developed around 40 different kinds of sweet and savory lumpia, including Strawberry White Chocolate Lumpia, Bean Burrito, Corn Dog Lumpia, and Fireworks Lumpia.
The proof that customers are eating up the Pinoy classic (with a twist!) is in the numbers — even if they could roll out 600 lumpia in a day, they'd still be falling short of the actual demand.
At the first LumpiaPalooza event last year, they sold 1,000 lumpia.
The customers' craving for the product gave birth to a food truck, named after the successful event. LumpiaPalooza the food truck has only been operational for three months, but they're already booked until October and they're already thinking of expanding.
There's bibingka in New York, now lumpia in Wichita — Filipino food is conquering the world one treat at a time. — AT, GMA News
