In a small town with few places to grab a bite to eat, the more experienced street-food-foragers keep their eyes peeled for deliciousness on wheels.
It’s an experience that one food market organiser hopes to bring more of to the Huntly community.
The food trucks of Huntly are few in numbers and strong in community. They follow each other to popular events and streets, and support each other through the tough times.
Rollin’ Dough is a fried bread food truck, cooking up both traditional fried bread and some with a twist such as cheese or chocolate.
“It’s a great community. At events, we will often all swap food between us,” owner Yve Haenga-Ashby said.
Haenga-Ashby started Rollin Dough after her daughter began studying business at the University of Waikato.
“Me and her dad said, if you’re going to learn business then the way you are going to learn is with your own business,” she said.
Family is hugely important to the Rollin’ Dough crew; even their menu items reflect it.
There’s the Uncles (“bigger in size, and everyone’s favourite”), the Aunties (“they come in little packs together because they like to sit together and chat”) and Nanas and Papas (“some sweet, some cheesy, but we love them”).
Their priorities are learning together, and taking care of the community.
“If someone is in need, we won’t let them go hungry; we often give out free meals,” Haenga-Ashby said.
“I’m a social worker full-time, so it’s just great to spend the weekends with my daughter.”
Kahi Kai, a classic street food truck selling hotdogs, burgers, and chips, is also a family oriented business.
“We set it up to teach our kids the value of a good work ethic,” said owner Penny Nikora, who only opened the truck for business last October.
When she’s not in the truck, Nikora is busy with her other business which provides screen-printing and embroidery services. Kahi Kai is a way for her to pass on financial wisdom to her kids.
“We wanted them to understand that all their hobbies and extracurricular activities come with expenses, and to understand how hard we work to provide those for them,” she said.
She’s loved watching her daughter’s confidence and understanding of the world grow. Her daughter is a big hit with regulars coming out for a feed.
“She talks smack to the customers, and they love it! My favourite part of the gig is definitely the customers, you meet a whole range of people.”
Both Rollin’ Dough and Kahi Kai travel to events such as the Fielddays and sporting events in the region, as well as sometimes finding busy public spots on weekends.
Mexican style food truck Locomexicano, travelling the Waikato roads for over nine years, also follows the crowds to events but finds setting up in a public space on a regular day to be less successful.
“We mainly go to regular events like Gourmet in the Gardens in Hamilton, and we just went along to Homegrown,” owner David Grace said.
Grace is not any part South American; he wanted a food truck and bought a mexican one as it was, keeping everything the same including the name.
“All my recipes are things I’ve sort of invented. It seems to be a popular menu with people.”
Director of Food Truck Social, Kris Bryant said that trucks like Rollin’ Dough, Locomexicano, and Kahi Kai may have a new opportunity very soon to regularly set up shop in Huntly.
“We are currently in the process of setting up a regular food truck event in Huntly, happening once every month,” Bryant said.
The event will include a dozen food trucks with generous variety, live music and entertainment, and lawn games for some community fun.
“The monthly event in Te Kauwhata has been successful over the last 1.5 years which sees a good number of the Huntly community attend which is great. But there is room for growth indeed.”
The start date for the Huntly food market is still to be confirmed.
by Sarah Morcom





