Looking like something that just rolled out from the back alleyways of Venice Beach, Kuya is the new Filipino food truck you need to get acquainted with. Translating to ‘brother’, Kuya takes traditional family recipes and reinterprets them in street food style. Packing generations of flavour refinement into a series of easy-to-eat, personality-loaded dishes, the end result is not only inventive but completely delicious.

Take the buttermilk fried chicken for instance. Tucked inside a uniquely purple bao bun with sweet and tangy sauce, the aptly named ‘Purrrp’ is finished with fresh cabbage and a few sprigs of coriander. Or the 12-hour slow-cooked adobo pork belly taco which is drizzled with a coconut and lime dressing before being sent over the edge with puffs of pork crackling. Loading huge, herb- and spice-led flavours into bite-sized morsels, the Filipino food truck (Auckland’s first, that we know of) is likely to find itself a firm fan base, fast.

Popping up at markets and happenings across our fair city (including La Cigale, Coast Collective and Mt Albert Markets), Kuya is also available for private hire which can be organised through Facebook. Providing us with a tasty introduction to this often overlooked Asian cuisine, we suggest you swing by.