Sharing the Kitchen with Friends

Have you ever been somewhere and tried a new food that was so ridiculously good you had to fill your belly up? So good that it was all you wanted ... all you thought about? And then for weeks afterward, months even, you found yourself hunting high and low for something that tasted remotely the same?

A couple years ago, a friend of ours had us over for dinner. She's from Guam -- and spent the entire day preparing some of the best food we had eaten in a very long time.

But nothing, in my opinion, topped the lumpia.

It was so good -- tightly rolled little spring rolls, lightly fried and served with sweet chili sauce. Warm and crispy, but surprisingly light at the same time. You wanted to sit down to a heaping plate full and eat them all.

And with as many as she had cooked, it was possible!

We left that night full and happy! And have gotten together at her house a few times since then, each time enjoying a meal full of her native foods. I have never once tasted anything in her home that I didn't want seconds, and even thirds, of.

But you see, that leaves me with a major dilemma.

What happens when I am craving some of that delicious food -- especially that crispy, lightly friend lumpia -- and there is no get together in sight? I've tried some of the frozen varieties that our local Commissary offers. They were just ... okay. Nothing to write home about, that's for sure.

So now begins my journey, I suppose. To find a recipe that lives up to what our friend cooks up in her kitchen. I suppose I could start by asking her if hers is a family secret ... one passed down generation to generation ... or if she would mind sharing.

Hopefully, she'll welcome a cooking lesson of sorts. And invite me into her kitchen. I would love nothing more than to learn from a seasoned "pro"! Sharing with friends is such a joy!