What’s the most lumpia you’ve ever eaten in one sitting? How fast did you consume the savory, starchy rolls of meat and cabbage? Do you think you could eat more than the stranger standing beside you?
These are questions you can answer at the South Bay’s 2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest, set to take place in Milpitas on Saturday, March 30.
The food extravaganza was originally conceived by three childhood friends — Keith Canda, Chris Zamora, and Anthony Cruzet — who run a San Jose food truck called Mestizo.
“It was talked about throughout the Bay Area, and it’s never happened in [the San Jose area] before. It came together from just us sharing our ideas and getting the community involved,” Zamora says.
Largely considered to be the Bay Area’s sprawling mecca for immigrant foods, San Jose’s culinary scene often gets overshadowed by the trendier, more bustling and outwardly attractive scenes in nearby San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. But as homegrown locals, the Mestizo boys know better. Last year, they aspired to showcase San Jose’s food offerings by throwing their inaugural Lumpia Eating Contest in San Jose’s Japantown . And it was a hit.
Organized in collaboration with the legendary streetwear brand Cukui, as well as Krucial Printing, the lumpia-inhaling spectacle drew a block’s worth of onlookers and two tables of hungry eaters who were determined to be crowned the Bay Area’s king (or queen) of lumpia. The winner devoured 30 rolls in under five minutes.
“You do the math and you’re like, ‘Man, eating that much lumpia? We can do that,’” Zamora told KQED last year about that first lumpia-eating contest. “But then you see it, and it’s actually kind of hard to do.”
This year’s event will take place at Krucial Printing’s studio in Milpitas, which will offer more space for family entertainment, spectators and — of course — lumpia lovers. The menu will only consist of pork lumpia, and the rules are simple: Stomach as many of the golden-fried Filipino appetizers as digestively possible within five minutes, or be the fastest to finish the entire platter of 30 before the buzzer sounds.
One of the organizers, Cruzet, admits that the lack of vegetarian options can be “limiting,” and Mestizo hopes to offer more variety for future editions of the contest. They also dream of teaming up with Lumpia Company, E-40’s Filipino food enterprise.
Until then, Bay Area lumpia enthusiasts can rejoice in seeing a group of adults racing their way through a table’s worth of the crispy spring rolls, or maybe even take a bite out of the competition themselves.
The South Bay’s 2nd Annual Lumpia Eating Contest will take place on Saturday, March 30 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Krucial Printing (821 Houret Ct., Milpitas). The event is family friendly and will include local food vendors and merchandise. Contact Mestizo for more details or questions about entry.
