Dearest foodies,

When we started this journey, Sunny shared with us a quote from a book about startups:

“You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.” – Marc Andreessen in Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Things About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers.

Epic last words. But not quite true.

Yes, we experienced euphoria and terror (more posts about this to come) and there was certainly a lack of sleep; but more importantly we also experienced gratitude, love, and an immense sense of community.

Thank you to our kickstarter backers who believed in us before the truck. Thank you to friends and family who supported us as we worked our way through the first year. Thank you to the network who cast us and gave us the once in a lifetime opportunity. Thank you to the entire production crew who gave us hope and encouragement through the adventure. Thank you to our food truck fans (new and old) for the cheers and smiles and help along the way. Thank you to all the strangers who took the time to listen to us and became our friends.

Last but not least, thank you to our fellow food truck competitors this season for the inspiration and the friendships we’ve gotten to take with us. The caliber of each of your trucks was extraordinary and we are so humbled and proud to be associated with you all.

Without the contributions of every single one of you, we wouldn’t be here.

This one is for you all. Thank you – again and again, and always.

With all our love,

Sunny, Sophia and Becca

We are so excited and proud to announce our adventure with Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race – Season 6! Watch us represent NC and the East Coast this season Sunday nights at 9pm EST. Episode One premiers August 23rd, 2015 on Food Network and features 7 trucks from all around the country. We can’t wait to watch the season with everyone!

“You only ever experience two emotions: euphoria and terror. And I find that lack of sleep enhances them both.”
– Marc Andreessen in Ben Horowitz’s The Hard Things About Hard Things on best things about startups.

See link below for trailer, pictures, and etc!

http://www.multivu.com/players/English/7329433-food-network-the-great-truck-race/

We’d like to formally introduce our fabulous third dumpling, who has joined us on our journey!

How does one describe someone as awesome as Becca? The best word that comes to mind is “moxie”. In case you aren’t familiar – Merriam Webster defines moxie as “energy; courage or determination; pep, know-how”.

Although all three of us met back in high school (NCSSM Class of ’06. Go Unis!), and have been friends forever we didn’t become a food trucking team until summer 2015. She has become our devil’s advocate, our logistics coordinator, our sanity check, our rock, and least importantly – our help in the kitchen. She keeps us giggling through it all and we can’t imagine a better person/best friend to round out our team.

Welcome to our new-and-improved revamped website! Please feel free to explore and take a look around. You’ll also notice that we’ve done little bit of tweaking to our name. While we have had so much fun with the original name, we feel that this change better reflects us moving forward while still keeping with our spirit. We hope you like it as much as we do!

Plus, this way you can just call us the Phomies ☺

Ok… My turn 🙂

One of my earliest memories that contributed to who I am as an Asian American today is sitting next to a boy in second grade, who pointed at my snack and screamed, “EWWW!!” I didn’t give a second thought to pulling out a pack of dried seaweed my mom had packed, a snack I was really familiar with as a child in Taiwan. Having only been back in the States for about six months, my English vocabulary did not allow me to explain to the boy, it’s actually pretty good. Instead, I denied that the snack was even seaweed. Looking back on it now, I wish I could go back and tell  seven year old me, “Embrace your different look, culture, and food. What the little boy finds disgusting now, America will one day accept  as exotic.”  To me the American Dream is finding success and joy in individuality, taking risks and daring to be different. The Dump Pho King Truck is my American Dream.

Growing up, my parents strategically raised me to be some type of doctor, lawyer, or even what I studied in college -an engineer.  I am forever grateful for my parents, and till today, I cannot fully take credit for any of the accomplishments I’ve had in life. I owe it to all the opportunities my parents gave me with their sacrifices. Their American dream was to provide a comfortable and safe lifestyle for my brother and I, so that eventually, we can provide the same lifestyle for ourselves and our own families. There are many parallels to my parent’s American Dream and mine, but the biggest difference may be the way we define family. The reason I dare to step out to dream of running the Dump Pho King Truck is because of the love I have for my new extended family, my city. I have lived in a total of 10 cities in my entire life, and had never called one city my home, until Raleigh, NC.  It is here where I grew to accept and embrace my identity as a Southern, second generation, Asian-American.  This is what I hope to bring to the truck. Not just one character that defines who I am, but all of me.

Love,
Sunny

Hey there!

Sophia here. Thanks for stopping by 🙂

So my mom always used to say “Most people eat to live, but our family? We live to eat!”

Thank goodness she also passed on a quick metabolism.

There are few things that make me happier than feeding people. Whether they be strangers or close friends, there is no mistaking the joy that I feel when I know that I’ve been able to give a moment of enjoyment. I want to bring healthy, unique, creative food to Raleigh!

At my core, my beliefs can be summed up with the Haitian Creole proverb “Tout moun se moun”. Literally translated – it means “Every person is a person”. I believe in each human being’s right to be considered and respected as a person, and their right to grow in an accepting environment into exactly who they are. Further I believe the main pillars of an accepting environment are access to affordable healthcare and access to education. Food translates into this belief – as nutrition for the foundation of good health and as the solution to one of the many barriers to education.

For those of you who know me, it may seem odd that I want to start a food truck. It is not particularly complicated, I don’t expect to make an enormous gain and anyone in the food industry will tell you, it’s constant backbreaking work. I have a comfortable job with a set career and yet, I can’t wait for the day when I give that life up. Because despite the work that I know will need to be invest, I am driven by a belief that I can contribute to my community with this venture. And that means the world to me.

So what’s my commitment with The Dump Pho King Truck?

1. Working my butt off.
2. Giving back and interacting with the local community.
3. Feeding you!
4. Taking risks and having fun.

Let’s go!

Love,

Sophia