Bringing the Philippines to Central Texas
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Elsie Corass, owner of Elsie’s Egg Rolls in Hutto, stands holding an eggroll order next to her two children, Reina Lamberton and Eugene Trinidad. The order counter behind them is modeled after a traditional Nipa Hut. Photo by Abbey Archer
“When I was 9 years old, I started to learn how to cook from my mom,” said Elsie Corass, owner of Elsie’s Egg Rolls in Hutto. “I had to help my family make some money.”
Ms. Corass started her first business cooking and selling food to her neighbors in late elementary school to help support her family. She has since grown to be a restaurant owner.
Elsie’s Egg Rolls is an authentic Filipino restaurant that began as a food truck parked at the Johnson Gordon Flea market in Round Rock. They have since opened a restaurant at 525 Chris Kelley Boulevard in Hutto.
Filipino cuisine is known to have an intense flavor profile. One of the most popular dishes at Elsie’s Egg Rolls is the tangy Pancit Noodles, which are rice noodles served with sauteed vegetables, chicken and a slice of lemon. The menu also features turons, which can best be described as a banana fried like an eggroll, served with chocolate sauce. They also serve other authentic Filipino foods like Dinuguan, which may seem strange to native Texans.
“We have a [Dinuguan] recipe with pork blood; we call it chocolate soup,” Ms. Corass said. “I learned how to make it from my mom. It has vinegar, tomato, garlic, onions and pork. It’s just the [broth] that has the blood.
“It’s really authentic Filipino food. I used to not want to sell it here because it used to be that 90 percent of my customers weren’t Filipino. But now I have more Filipino people coming in. Now I have 20 percent.”
Ms. Corass explained that there are now more Filipinos in the area because people are moving from New York and California to work at Tesla, Samsung and other tech companies in the area. She said a lack of Filipino restaurant options has people from all across Central Texas driving to eat at Elsie’s Egg Rolls.
Early successes
Elsie’s Egg Rolls started as a food truck and skyrocketed in popularity in 2015, when Ms. Corass was invited to park her food truck at the Formula 1 races after a customer enjoyed her cooking.
As luck would have it, the customer was in charge of putting together the food truck roster for the F1 event, and was hoping to offer food from different parts of the world. Ms. Corass said she didn’t quite understand the nature of the Circuit of the Americas F1 event. There were a lot more people than she was expecting, and they were from all over the world.
“I was crying, because I couldn’t believe that the people were lining up to eat my food,” she said. “From being nine years old, starting to cook to [feeding] these people from around the world. They had different flag blankets— England, Japan and other countries.”
Compared to the few hundred people she had been serving on an average weekend, Ms. Corass sold around 3,000 egg rolls during the three-days event. She returned to F1 each year until the Covid pandemic hit.
Throughout the pandemic, Ms. Corass and her children delivered to-go family style meals to customers.
In 2021, they opened their restaurant in Hutto, which has both a dining room and a drive through window. The food truck is still available to rent for events.
Giving back
The success of her business has enabled Ms. Corass to help people back where she is from in Santa Cruz Laguna, Philippines.
She grew up in an underprivileged neighborhood called Pantalan, which endures flooding six months out of the year due to typhoons. Ms. Corass is now able to donate food to help the neighborhood during harsh times.
Last year, she and her husband built condos in a safe part of Santa Cruz Laguna for her siblings who still live there. Ms. Corass has also created a semesterly scholarship at the University of the Philippines in the name of her late sister, Emma del Mundo Legasto.
Despite growing up with few resources, Ms. Corass and each of her five siblings were able to attend college and graduate college. Ms. Corass graduated with a degree in business administration. She also studied banking, finance and library science.
When she first immigrated to the United States, Ms. Corass did not have great experiences working. She said her former employers did not see her natural leadership capabilities. By opening Elsie’s Egg Rolls, Ms. Corass has since achieved what she always knew she could.
“I proved that I’m not just an employee. I’m a leader. I’m an employer,” she said.