Since 2022, Abi Marquez has built a name for herself as a food vlogger and, as the internet has so lovingly dubbed her, TikTok’s reigning “Lumpia Queen.” However, Marquez never planned the moniker.
In the latest episode of Rolling Stone Philippines’ YouTube series, Greatest Hits, the food vlogger spoke on how she’s always associated lumpia with memories of her family.
“[Kapag] may celebration, may birthday, lumpia pa rin lagi ‘yung handa,” Marquez told Rolling Stone Philippines. “As someone who grew up loving to eat, that’s always been a target [dish]. I grew up in a family that, whenever we were going to cook lumpia, we had to do it together. So my mother would wake me up to say, ‘Tulungan mo naman akong mag-wrap, tulungan mo akong gawin ‘yung lumpia. Gisingin ‘yung kapatid mo [para] maluto niya ‘yung lumpia.’”
Because she’s carried that love of Filipino dishes into her videos, Marquez noted that many of her fans now associate her with lumpia. “When I go to public spaces, they don’t call me Abi,” she said. “They call me ‘Lumpia Wrapper’ or ‘Ate Lumpia!’”
“I was just experimenting with lumpia wrappers, so I had a hard time accepting that,” Marquez said when reflecting on her feelings towards her title as the reigning “Lumpia Queen.” “But people were calling me that and that’s what they remember me for.”
“I saw that people wanted to call me that and I didn’t really have a choice, to be honest,” she added. “The only choice I had, to make something good out of this, was to embrace it and honor it as much as I can. I always try to make new lumpia recipes to further give hype to this underrated Filipino [dish].”
In Rolling Stone Philippines’ Greatest Hits, Marquez breaks down five of her biggest career milestones to date. You can watch it now exclusively on our YouTube channel.
