Food trucks: Rolling with the times

Food trucks are staunchily going ahead with their businesses, remaining undeterred by the lack of help of legislative push in the state while encouraged by local food enthusiasts critical of a new business model in town.

While there are still no specific licenses that can be applied for the operation of a food truck in Kuching, this has not stopped entrepreneurs from going forth and making a name for themselves in the local F&B scene.

Persatuan Penjaja dan Peniaga Bergerak Sarawak (PPPBS) president Kelvin Chong revealed to BizHive Weekly that the association had recently paid a visit to a local government minister on this matter, in addition to having sent proposals to the council to keep pushing for the matter.

On the feeback given thus far from authorities, Chong said they are in the midst of proposing a better system for food truck operators in the state.

On this point, Sarawak’s Bumiputera FoodTruck Association (SBFA) has also been busy enhancing the food truck industry here through an upcoming memorandum of understanding (MOU) signing with MARA and DBKU. The MOU signing will take place this month.

According to chairman Mahathir Ibrahim, the MOU is mainly an understanding between three parties to help promote entrepreneurship to Bumiputeras with the assistance of MARA’s financing, legalisation of the business and make the city more vibrant and clean in a bid to boost Sarawak’s tourism industry.

In addition, the MOU will allow respective parties to give assistance and advice to operators on the know-hows of food truck operations.

“This pilot project between the three parties is very significant in food truck history in Malaysia, especially in Sarawak wherein everybody will play their major role in achieving the three main objectives,” Mahathir told BizHive Weekly.

“With the signing of the MOU, it is the first step taken by our association in ensuring all members follow the requirements by the council especially in safety and health regulations.

It is not much different from before, only that (after the signing) it will be handled by the association for easy monitoring.”

Gauging feedback from society

A recently-concluded Kuching Food Truck gathering saw a large turnout despite the rain, which was beyond the association’s expectations.

With this successful event, the association hopes for assistance from authorities in realising and making it a reality for all food trucks in holding the gatherings regularly.

“Some planning has been initiated for this purpose. The association and DBKU have located certain location for legalised operators to operate. So we expect there will be more gathering after this,” he assured.

Chong also echoed the sentiments, noting that there are plans to hold the gatherings on a monthly basis.

“I hope that the food truck industry can be established as an honorable business. I also hope that with this association (PPPBS) , we are able to work closely with the tourism board in an effort to make Sarawak a vibrant state,” he said.

As for SBFA, it hopes for the local authorities to eventually recognise the food truck business as another viable option for those who are trying to survive in this slowing economy.

The association believes that this food truck business concept can also create more opportunities for interested business partners and job seekers in the long run.

The Food Chow, a new addition to the growing food truck community since August this year, is embracing all opportunities that a food truck has to offer and is not limiting itself to serving any particular cuisine.

When met at Cafe Cafe at Song Plaza, Peter Tiong, who is also a partner The Food Chow, opened up to BizHive Weekly on how they (the partners) decided to venture into the food truck business.

One of the company’s shareholders, Olivia Ling, came up with the idea because she had watched a certain food truck wars show on Astro, he explained.

“The concept of a food truck which leans more towards serving fast food whereby people come and order at the parked vehicle, wait less than 15 minutes, took some getting used,” Tiong said, adding that he preferred the physical restaurant layout which allowed customers to sit down first, then take their time to order and generally enjoy the environment while waiting for their meals.

That said, he acknowledged that it was an advantage having a food truck now given that their Cafe Cafe restaurant actually receives a lot of requests for outside caterings. As such, aside from the normal operation hours, The Food Chow can also be hired out for caterings from the restaurant as well.

Overall, for those interested in starting up a food truck business, Tiong admitted that it is tough work as food trucks do not have regular kitchens. “Everything has to be hands-on, you have to cut costs,” he said, adding that food trucks can not really accommodate too many people.

That said, as seen at the first Kuching Food Truck gathering held recently which drew in enthusiastic food connoiseurs and saw all food trucks sell out at the end of the event, it may all be well worth the hard work.

Currently, The Food Chow serves Mexican food such as tacos, avocado fries and guacamole, and response to this new cuisine has been good thus far.

Tiong observed that in the beginning, the crowd which came to try out the food did not quite know what to make of the tacos and thus he had to explain what they were, including the ingredients of the dishes.

However, he found it an achievement when customers gave good feedback on The Food Chow’s menu items.

To date, The Food Chow’s best sellers are its avocado fries and fish tacos. The fish tacos are popular because The Food Chow uses halibut which also explains why prices are slightly more expensive.

Tiong pointed out that avocado is not cheap and that they use up almost an entire avocado for one piece of taco.

“Initially people thought our prices were high because our tacos are quite expensive…It’s a bit tough initially but, people understand after a while,” he said, adding that he spent the first month following The Food Chow’s opening to explain to customers what tacos were and the ingredients used to make them.

While originally focusing on a Mexican-inspired menu, The Food Chow is actually flexible and aims to change the menu every month, given that the food truck has a full-serviced kitchen at its disposal.

In fact, The Food Chow plans to change its focus from tacos to burgers. In the near future, when the food truck eventually expands its menu, they will likely just offer one type of taco and avocado fries and an additional three burgers.

“We will see which burger works and then we will drop the other burgers and select one to be put in our permanent menu,” he said.

On whether The Food Chow targeted any particular market segment, he highlighted that they aimed to attract young adults, aged between 20 to 40 years old, basically those who are more experimental when it comes to new types of food.

With their burgers, The Food Chow will not be offering ordinary and classic options but will likely be giving their customers a unique range such as Korean-inspired burgers with kimchi or Hawaiian-themed burgers with pineapple rings and barbeque sauce.

The Food Chow has a lineup of events in the next few months. For example, come December, The Food Chow will be hosting a ‘Celebrity Takeover’ whereby a gym – Urban APE – will take over the food truck and set up their own clean food menu. That particular month, The Food Chow will be serving Urban Apes’ menu items.

Location-wise, aside from Song Plaza, The Food Chow does alternately set up shop at other areas such as S3 Curve. Prior to parking anywhere, Peter assured that they will always check with other food and beverage establishments around for permission to operate there, out of courtesy.

In addition, The Food Chow maintains the cleanliness of the premises it parks at by making it a habit for employees to clean up the place after operating hours.

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kampung Baru comes to Sarawak

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Kampung Baru, a well-known nasi lemak cuisine brand originanting from West Malaysia, recently ventured into the food truck business, not long after Sarawak’s first franchise (Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak) opened in Kuching.

Manager Khairul Hashim Hazmi revealed that food trucks – still viewed as a new type of business – is actually a more affordable option to opening a physical outlet here in Kuching.

“If I rented a shoplot, it would cost RM3,000 (per month) at the cheapest, but if I buy a food truck, the monthly installment would be around RM1,200 to RM1,500 only,” he explained to BizHive Weekly.

“Apart from that, the products served in the food truck are the same things served at my restaurant (located at Matang). People (who live far away) like Samarahan, Tabuan, BDC – it is difficult for them to come to Matang and so, I bring my food truck to those areas instead.”

To date, reception for the food truck has been well received, with Khairul observing that Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak attracts a wide variety of people from all walks of life.

He believed that this is probably because of the fact that their nasi lemak is being served in a food truck, something which is still seen as a unique concept.

Khairul went on to explain that with a food truck, hygiene is of the utmost importance.

He said that people in general, himself included, prefer the cleanliness factor when it comes to F&B.

“That’s why I think every food truck – they all maintain the hygiene of their premises and basically our crowds prefer to opt for businesses which factor in cleanliness in their business,” he observed.

Speaking of competing with other forms of businesses such as roadside canopy stalls, Khairul said that pricing remains a key challenge.

“Despite food trucks being a more hygienic option, other customers out there will still choose the competitor because cost-wise, it is preferably within their budgets,” he opined.

“However, the prices of our menu items are identical to the prices at the Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak restaurant. The company does not charge higher, even though it is literally transporting the food to a further location from the restaurant.”

Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak’s nasi lemak is priced at RM2.60 for the basic option (biasa) which consists of rice, sambal, cucumbers, peanuts, ikan bilis and egg. With toppings, the price will range from RM3 to RM5 while add-ons will total in the range of RM6 to RM7.

Aside from the signature nasi lemak served at the food truck, Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak also serves other items such as burgers, fries, sausages, mee goreng, nasi goreng, bihun goreng, puddings, cakes and drinks.

With an established restaurant, food truck operations run smoother for Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak as all the food truck’s food are pre-prepared at the central kitchen at the restaurant.

As such, the food truck will collect the food from the restaurant before moving to their chosen destination and after its operating hours, will return to the restaurant for daily clean up.

Khairul has big plans for Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak, as he and his partners aim to have five food trucks all over Sarawak in areas such as Serian, Kota Samarahan and even further up north.

As to what has been done in Kuching, he plans to first open up a small outlet at the chosen area prior to any decisions on operating another food truck.

But first, Khairul hopes the issue of the permit is settled first which will allow food trucks to also operate longer in the daytime as well.

Currently, Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak’s food truck operates from 3pm to 11pm.

He revealed that one of the discussions with fellow food truck operators had involved plans to organise an event at  Simpang Tiga whereby they will park at a certain area from 10am to 2pm, thus catering to the lunch hour crowd, after which they will close shop and leave the premises.

The food truck operators are currently preparing a proposal to send to the authorities for approval.

“I plan to go the office areas because office people who prefer not to walk far would likely want to purchase foods nearby and with the food trucks nearby, this would make it even easier for the customers,” he said.

With a complete F&B menu at the food truck, it is no wonder Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak is eager to target the office people during lunch hours.

For now, with its strategic locations at either Jalan Tun Jugah or Giant Tabuan Jaya, the food truck targets office people who have just finished work and do not have time to go far to buy dinners.

Khairul reiterated that as with the lunch crowd, instead of just waiting for customers to come to them, Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa Sarawak brings the food and drinks to them.

Hungry Dino – venturing into an exciting industry

The light blue colour of Hungry Dino with the logo of a dinosaur catching a sandwich is hard to miss when you pass by Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho.

According to Hungry Dino partner Bong Sik Soon, who has always had a penchant for food, he has always wanted to dabble in the F&B industry.

“That time when we decided to come up (with Hungry Dino), it was either to start with a small stall or we go big and open a cafe or something like that. But then, when we looked at the market, we saw that in Kuching, there’s not much food trucks (here) yet,” Bong said.

“Cost-wise and everything, food truck is in between a stall and a physical shop. There’s also a lot more advantages to food trucks compared to the others so that’s why we decided to use a food truck instead.”

As food trucks are mobile, Eric Chong, also partner at Hungry Dino and a chef by profession, also highlighted that the winning point for using this vehicle was that they can go search for customers instead of just waiting for customers to come to them.

With a menu leaning towards the Western cuisine, Bong shared that the food items offered by Hungry Dino are in fact what the partners themselves enjoy eating.

Hungry Dino’s ‘mains’ are sandwiches, with choices of either pulled beef or chicken (marinated chicken thigh). Customers also have the option of having the sandwiches with normal baguette which is crispier or charcoal baguette which is softer.

Hungry Dino only began offering the charcoal baguette after feedbacks and realising that its customers preferred softer buns.

“We also have grilled cheese which is more like comfort food,” Bong said, adding that these contain three different types of cheese and the bread is grilled on the exterior with a little garlic butter so that it is crispy on the outside while the cheese melts on the inside.

Along with aglio olio which is also on the menu and another favourite of Bong’s, the partners found that generally, all three of their dishes are selling well.

That said, they noticed that since mid-July their molten salted egg yolk croissant has been a big hit among Kuching folk.

Bong observed that the salted egg yolk trend has been going on in West Malaysia and Singpore for quite some time and while it is a hype over there, nobody in Kuching had caught on to this back then.

“So, we also experimented with it to come up with our own version of it. It has been very popular for these three months,” he said.

However, this delicacy is only available on Fridays and Saturdays at their usual location.

He explained that while the demand is there but as the croissants are hand rolled and the quality needs to be maintained, they can only produce a certain number of units at a time.

When planning for the Hungry Dino menu, Bong said that they observed most of the sandwiches available in Kuching contain processed meats or frozen food.

As such, when developing their menu, Hungry Dino tried to make everything from scratch and not depend on canned or preserved ingredients.

“Eventually we will want a brick and mortar establishment,” Bong said. “But for the time being, we will focus more on the food truck.”

That said, the partners have another project in the pipeline which they hope to launch end of this month.

As the food truck can only be operated at night for now, they plan to do a spinoff of Hungry Dino by going into a lunch delivery business.

While the concept of food trucks in Kuching and overall Sarawak is still relatively new, Hungry Dino hopes that more people join the food truck industry because power comes with numbers which makes it easier for them to negotiate with the local government on the legalisation of food trucks.

“If we have more food trucks, then there’s more possibilities, we can do more gatherings and maybe find a place to set it up,” Bong enthused.

Since venturing into the food truck industry with Hungry Dino, the partners have found it to be very exciting as they learn a lot while interacting with the different customers they meet.

In addition, as a food truck is mobile, they have people approaching them to hire for events and these are just some of the opportunities which are not available when operating a stall or restaurant.

“It’s a good industry to be in, we expect to see more not only in Kuching but in other areas. It’s still at the infancy stage but hopefully we get to see more,” he said.

Sharon Kong bizhive@theborneopost.com

*Note: I added to this site with the reason of keeping the information like newspaper cut. This news is from The Borneo Post ( www,theborneopost.com ) who carried the copy right. Thanks