By Yiming Fu, a Report for America corps member
Mae Ann Dela Cruz and Rocky Cabadine of Lahaina are known for their homemade sisig plates that they would sell to friends and co-workers. For many of their fellow Filipino colleagues at the Hilton, it felt like a taste of home.
Everyone fell in love with their cooking, pestering the couple to start their own food truck. In August 2023, Dela Cruz and Cabadine were finally ready after nine years. They bought a little shack to put in the food truck plaza by the Shell gas station in Lahaina. It was a small space, but just enough to prepare their signature sisig plate and sell to customers. They ordered appliances and decorations, and they were ready to open up.
On August 8, 2023, the Lahaina fires burned down most of Lahaina’s historic downtown, including the Dela Cruz and Cabadine’s home and sisig shack. Their dreams were delayed.
One year later, Dela Cruz and Cabadine are the co-owners of Tagpuan, a Filipino food truck in Wailuku. And it’s bigger than what they envisioned before, selling not just sisig dishes but other plates like grilled pork belly, chicken inasal and adobo chicken wings. The Filipino couple, who are also Lahaina fire survivors, could be a model to show that Maui can sustain and support careers beyond tourism.
Food that feels like home
The truck’s trademark is still their Sisig — “Because I love sisig,” Dela Cruz said. “And most Filipinos — if you say sisig, you know it’s Filipino for sure.”
Sisig is chopped pork with calamansi juice, onions and chili peppers.
“When they taste our food it will feel like home,” Delacruz said. “Like they’re in Philippines. All their cravings for Filipino food will be satisfied.”
Dela Cruz speaks Tagalog and Cabadine speaks Ilocano and they love talking to their customers like friends, speaking in their own languages.
Dela Cruz loves to do the desserts, which includes halo halo, leche flan and banana lumpia. She used to be a barista and enjoys preparing sweet treats for people. She hopes to get her own espresso machine to make drinks for others.
New beginnings
When the fire started up, Cabadine went back to his shack, hoping to save it. He stood on top fighting back flames with hoses for about 30 minutes. He left when it seemed futile
Dela Cruz said it was sad to lose the truck.
“It’s not good that it happened, but it was replaced with a bigger one, so we’re still blessed. Even though the first one got burned it was replaced with a bigger blessing for us.”
The couple was able to find a new food and larger food truck on Facebook Marketplace, which allowed them to expand the menu. In the first month they opened, they offered free cups of sinigang to their customers.
One year after the fire, Tagpuan was able to re-open with an expanded menu. Photo by Yiming Fu 
In November, Rocky Cabadine was able to quit his job as a chef in the Lahaina hotels to work as a chef at his own food truck. Photo by Yiming Fu 
Tagpuan’s steak bites with house sauce (left) and sisig (right). The food truck also sells Filipino dessert favorites like halo halo. Photo by Yiming Fu.
Being your own boss
Cabadine was able to quit his job at Hilton in the first week of November to focus full time on the food truck.
“We don’t have to work for somebody else now,” Dela Cruz said.“He just works for me,” she adds with a laugh.
Before, the couple would work 9-5 at the hotels in Lahaina before making a 45-minute commute into Wailuku to run their food truck at night. The night ended with the long drive back home to their temporary fire survivor housing in Kaanapali.
Dela Cruz said leaving their hotel jobs makes time for family. Cabadine and Dela Cruz have a two year old and an 11 year old. Sometimes they go to the beach together, but Dela Cruz said it’s most fun staying at home and watching TV shows. Her daughter is currently hooked on the Smurfs.
“She watches it over and over again, straight two months every day. I think she knows already what’s the action and what’s the next word to say.”
They also have more flexibility to have vacations and visit extended family in the Philippines. Family is everything for Dela Cruz.
The turning point that let Cabadine quit his job was Kaibigan ng Lahaina’s Palengke Night, an event that aimed to uplift Lahaina’s Filipino small business owners by setting up a night market on the West Side in November. Vendors could set up stands for free. Tagpuan brought plates of sisig and chicken inasal that sold out within an hour, giving Dela Cruz and Cabadine enough money to quit their hotel jobs and focus on the food truck full time.
Sieny Corpuz, the director of Kaibigan ng Lahaina said the event’s goal was to create ways for Filipinos to be part of Lahaina’s economic resiliency without depending on tourism.
“Not only were we able to put the money back into the community, we were able to help the specific category of business owners which are Filipinos, and for him to be able to stand up and do his business full time — which is what he has been always wanting to do.”
In the future, Cabadine hopes to expand his food truck business. He thinks it would be cool to be able to open a small restaurant in Lahaina. While business can still be up and down, the truck has many dependable regulars who count on Tagpuan to always deliver food that feels like home.
Dela Cruz said the key to not giving up was faith.
“You just live once so you just have to keep going.”
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