A Filipino restaurant in Houston, Texas rallied members of its community to come together for the second edition of its now-popular lumpia eating contest on the fourth of July in a bid to help small businesses recover from the effects of the pandemic.
Seven contestants representing different Houston-based restaurants scarfed down as many fried lumpia rolls as they could under 10 minutes in a competition hosted by Filipino establishment Be More Pacific: Filipino Kitchen & Bar.
Co-owner Giovan Cuchapin said that the contest was created as a way to gather people to enjoy Filipino food and culture, while drumming up support for the local restaurant industry affected by the pandemic.
“Last year, businesses were just kind of creeping out of COVID. We’re still kind of creeping out of there, especially with the restaurant businesses. We’re just doing our part to help everybody out and to get out of that funk and get everybody where they need to be,” Cuchapin told Houston network KPRC2.
Chris Nguyen, representing poke joint Seaside Poke, won the contest after eating 52 lumpias.
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