today's video is about risking it all to chase a dream about a couple who spent
their life savings on a food truck in the hopes of introducing filipino food to their community
and who have since taken auckland by storm with their amazing filipino food we are so
pumped to introduce Laura and Aldrin Tabora with you they are the owner operators of
Hapunan a food truck and takeout shop serving up contemporary filipino food
Hapunan is kind of filipino food but with a modern take so we've kind of took the classics but
we've kind of presented them in a little bit of a different way so it's kind of welcoming
for europeans but filipinos still know that it's their cuisine yeah and understand it
my mouth is watering reading the menu so it's a really succinct menu that's inspired by
traditional filipino dishes as well as street food that you would find in the philippines but with
a twist
well the filipino food is pretty much like a melting pot of uh yeah cultures like um
spanish malay chinese
i think that's why it's kind of so welcoming to everyone
because there's a little bit of each culture in there
for me i feel like Hapunan do a little bit differently to how it's supposed to be presented in the philippines
so for us we kind of have modernised it in a way where it's quite presentable i guess you could say
because in the philippines as long as it tastes amazing the look is very basic
it's different yeah because we're Hapunan yeah
Aldrin and Laura are hugely passionate about introducing filipino flavours to the kiwi palate so
ingredients like soy vinegar coconut palm sugar but it's all packaged very
cleverly so i'm peering over Aldrin's shoulder as the pata tim is being made pata tim
is traditionally served as a big pork hock so it's a braised pork hock but here they've
shredded the pork hock and stuffed it into a bao
i think the pata tim is one of the most
questionable to filipinos so you're expecting a pork hock like a big pork hock but then um you receive
your um your pata tim it's like in a siopao siopao is like a bao bun in philippines i love it because
that's my mission because i think i think filipino food like never evolved yeah yeah didn't change
so much love goes into the food even the way that Aldrin is mixing that slaw so much care
because at the heart of it it's still just Laura and Aldrin and their team
passionate about filipino food
i said we should bring filipino food to new zealand because there's nothing really here at that time
and then we were planning our wedding and Aldrin's like why don't we kind of invest
all our savings into something so we're like let's get a food truck
so that's how it started the concept
you spent all you lifes savings on a food truck
yep with all the wedding funds really so we had 30k to kind of dabble into
and we kind of just sectioned it out and we just kind of bought a little bit here bought a little bit there
and we just kind of built it over time
so we're just like a take-away shop in here but you know we put like so much love into
this food and so much time and energy
you can tell from the diners faces though you know
people have these giant smiles on their faces when they're eating your food
i always have a massive smile on my face because it's so delicious
you can taste the love yeah you you have to love it
um on your first bite otherwise bye bye
so this is the delicious magical adobo del diablo
yep that's one of our
signature dish
it's a little bit controversial too though
yes it is well you know this one um our version is a soy sauce vinegar coconut milk
um bay leaves peppercorns garlic and chilli
but it looks different doesn't it like in the philippines it's black
black yeah
this one is like uh the reason why it's yellow because of the turmeric that gives us like another like level of uh
you know spice and flavour
yeah top dish we have never taken it off we probably will never take it off yeah
number two is the uh the taho the taho is like supposed to be in philippines it's supposed to be a um silken tofu
so he's like why don't i kind of make something similar so he did a soy panacotta
and then he did his own syrup and then he put his own sago and he's like here have this
and i was like Aldrin this tastes better than the philippines and he's like "oh should we sell it?" i was like why not?
so i posted it and i kid you not as soon as we opened the doors at britomart
we had a line from the end of britomart to the far end of the atrium and you know how big that is
and all the other food trucks were like what are you selling?
Taho! Taho! Taho!
they were like what, what is that
we sold out within an hour we'd had hundreds 300 taho i think
and this lady was so desperate to have taho she found this guy
and he's like i'll give you $300 for the taho i'll give you $300
one cup we were selling it for $8
no this is my taho i queued for this yeah
he paid $8 for it and he wouldn't sell it for $300
and the market organiser was like what is this i've never seen anything like this in my life and we're like me neither
we've ordered 3/4 of the menu so the menu is super succinct
but every dish is stand out you cannot order badly at Hapunan and the food is colourful and vibrant
just look at it it's so appealing we've got adobo del diablo so in the philippines this would be
black served with slaw rice we've got the pata tim so traditionally a whole pork hock but here it's been
pulled apart stuffed into a bao served with pickled cucumber coriander chilli we've got the
lumpia so spring rolls stuffed full of longganisa which is filipino breakfast sausage we've got
calamari in a salty sweet soy sauce and this one's beef kare kare beef braised in a peanut and
annatto sauce and then we've got the desserts ube ice cream look at that bright purple ice cream ube
is sweet purple yam that is delicious we've had that before and this is taho in the philippines
this is a breakfast street food of silken tofu in a syrup but Hapunan's version is a soy panacotta
with palm sugar syrup and mini sago this is next level delicious and really popular
i'm going in for their signature dish the adobo del diablo
absolutely sensational the chicken is super tender the coconut rice is
so creamy you can taste the love in the food Aldrin has worked for years in kitchens
and he has perfected his craft and i think that Hapunan's goal of introducing filipino flavours to
the kiwi palate is totally working because the food is fun to eat it's delicious
but it's filipino food you know it's got those traditional flavours far out it's good
mmm i love this dessert so much the soy panacotta is so creamy
that hit of sweetness from the palm sugar the pop of the sago
far out this feast has just been so delicious and this has been such a joy to film we have
loved sharing Hapunan's story with you we find it so inspiring spending your life savings on a
food truck to realise your dream of promoting and sharing the food of your culture it's absolutely
awesome and they are doing everything so well they have worked so hard to build this business
up and it has been such a joy and such a pleasure to share it with you we hope you have enjoyed this
one thank you for watching hit subscribe if you liked it there's more to come on the channel like
this see you soon
for us really we're just super stoked that we've got this far and
i think that there's only more to come hopefully
keep going get up and show up yeah yep pretty much you