Kauaʻi resident Andrew Kakalia talks about The Musubi Truck’s success and feeding the island’s keiki
A Kauaʻi food truck is gaining popularity as it has added two new locations within one year’s time. The Musubi Truck, located in Kapaʻa, Kōloa and Līhuʻe, has a nicely sized menu, with musubi, a poke bowl and bentos. But it’s the assortment of musubi, such as ʻahi katsu, miso chicken and kalbi beef, that makes you want to try them all. There’s even a deep-fried Spam musubi.
“Our vision pretty much was to just create a kind of basic food truck that kind of just put a little spin onto what we all grew up eating,” says co-owner Andrew Kakalia, who is also the chef at the Kōloa location. The idea also seemed fitting for Kauaʻi, since the island is said to be the birthplace of the Spam musubi.
“We just wanted to produce good food at an affordable cost, because everything is so expensive here on island,” Kakalia adds.
He was a fulltime lifeguard, when he and his wife, Kelly, opened the first location in Kapaʻa in 2020. They own the business with another Kauaʻi couple, Nicolette and Jeffrey Aguinaldo, the chef who came up with the recipes. ‘I call him ʻFood Lord,’” Kakalia says. “That guy is a genius with food.”
Although they had a well thought-out plan, Kakalia admits he had some doubts at first. “I was like, ʻWhat are we doing? This is crazy.’ The pandemic hit and I was like, ʻsee, I knew it.’”
Some of the delectable items on The Musubi Truck’s menu include (l-r): Miso Happy Chicken musubi, Chicken Katsu musubi and their fresh ahi poke bowl available three ways – “local” style, “spicy mayo” and “ginger soy.”
But instead of giving up, the owners stuck through it. Kakalia quit his job as a lifeguard to go full time and then COVID shut everything down. “It was logistically the worst time to quit my job, but I knew The Musubi Truck was going to work out,” he says.
Kakalia was right. When the shutdown ended, sales picked up. Last year, they added a second Musubi Truck in Kōloa. Within six months of that, they opened a third — their first brick-and-mortar location — near Kalapakī Beach in Līhuʻe.
It had always been a goal for them to expand, and they are living their dream. Now, they are looking into franchising the business. “Brah, honestly, our vision is to expand globally. I see a musubi truck, no joke, everywhere,” Kakalia says.
Feeding the keiki
Born and raised on Kauaʻi, Kakalia sees and recognizes the importance of improving the island’s food security. When The Musubi Truck first opened, he felt a desire to help the community. They started a Feed Our Keiki program three years ago and recently founded a nonprofit by the same name.
“When we first opened, I would just drive to the skate park every day and hook up all the kids with musubis,” he says. “And then we got a little smarter, and we started just printing out tickets.” Kids could then take the ticket and redeem a meal at one of their locations. One keiki meal consists of an OG Spam musubi with chips or mandarin orange and juice.
Donations of $5 feed one meal to keiki, who are in need. “We had someone donate, like, 1,000 bucks, so we got to go and give hundreds of cards to different people,” he says. Sometimes they’ll give a stack of cards to local school principals.
“Just the little smiles, just the smiles that you see on kid’s faces you know. It’s pretty radical,” says Kakalia, who is also a father of four. “You can see a little bit of shame in the family, sometimes in the parents, but you don’t see any of that in the kids. They’re just smiling ear to ear and the joy is radiant.”
The program, which is now in its fourth year, has served over 10,000 meals. “You know, a lot of people, this is local style, they’re not going to say they need a hand, you know. Most people they [tend to say], ‘Don’t help me, I got this,’” Kakalia says. “When our heart is like, ‘No, brah, we want to bless those that need it.’”
