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![\"Customers](\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Food-truck-pix-copy.jpg\")
<\/a>Why shawarma?<\/strong><\/p>\n Nunag and his business partner, Mark Badal, started their shawarma business way back in 2010 when they used to have a stand at the Thursday Market at the Garapan Fishing Base. However, they had to close down when they needed to focus on other jobs.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to when they were ready to restart the business, they couldn\u2019t find a location.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really wanted to put up a small restaurant but it\u2019s hard to find a spot here in Garapan. I came up with the idea\u2014why not a food truck?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But why shawarma?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was young I really liked food. When I tasted shawarma as a kid, I said to myself, if ever I\u2019ll be putting up a food business, it must be shawarma,\u201d Nunag said.<\/p>\n He said he likes shawarma for its simplicity, taste, as well as the sauciness of the food.<\/p>\n Right now, Shawarma Boy offers beef shawarma, chicken shawarma, a shawarma combination of the two, and shawarma rice with either beef or chicken.<\/p>\n Nunag says they are thinking of adding more to their menu as well as serving food during lunch times. Why the food truck biz?<\/strong><\/p>\n Shawarma Boy won their truck in an auction. Nunag said they got it for $1,500 but then had to replace almost every part, including the machine and the tires.<\/p>\n Another difficulty that they encountered was securing permits.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was hard to secure a permit because they didn\u2019t have any rules yet [regarding food trucks]. We were passed to different agencies,\u201d Nunag recalled.<\/p>\n However, despite the birthing pains, the boys were successful in restarting the business. They were even able to secure a permit to use part of the land near the Garapan Basketball Court where they can park anytime they want\u2014usually on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.<\/p>\n Just two months since opening, they are gaining popularity, selling about 250 shawarmas in the Thursday Market and having followers on social media.<\/p>\n Nunag said they are expecting to recoup their investment within 10 months.<\/p>\n Asked how it feels to have pioneered a business in the Commonwealth, Nunag says it all comes down to passion.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels good, I feel proud that Filipinos are the first one to have a food truck business here,\u201d Nunag said. \u201cCooking is really my passion [but] don\u2019t expect to be rich right away. It\u2019s more of you being happy with what you\u2019re doing, being able to do what you\u2019re passionate about.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite potential rivals, Nunag wants more people to start their own food truck business.<\/p>\n \u201cJust don\u2019t sell shawarma like us. They can create their cupcake truck, ice cream truck, waffle truck, which is the biggest in the States. They can park here. I can give them space here, its okay. It will attract customers, it will be a destination,\u201d Nunag said.<\/p>\n He even recommends it to first-timers in the business.<\/p>\n \u201cThose foodies who want to put up their own restaurant, I suggest they put up a food truck first because it\u2019s mobile, the capital is low. It\u2019s easier also and the expenses are not high,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With its bright yellow and outstanding orange colors, who wouldn\u2019t notice Saipan\u2019s one and only…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":204040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[56,42,5348,5349],"class_list":["post-204039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-business-3","tag-food","tag-shawarma-boy-saipan","tag-thursday-market"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cSoon we\u2019re going to have hummus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n