New Korean-Peruvian fusion food truck opens in the Gate City area

POCATELLO — A new food truck is hitting the streets of Pocatello and Chubbuck, providing Gate City area residents with a taste of Korean and Peruvian dishes fused in exciting and delectable ways.

The new fusion truck is named TuMi, or "you and me," and is a collaborative effort between owners Chandra Thiel and Buck Buchanan, who are part Korean and part Peruvian, respectively.

“We both grew up with a huge influence from our cultures, getting to try different foods, not only from our cultures, but others,” Thiel said. “We felt like there was an opportunity for us to welcome those different types of food into the Pocatello and Chubbuck community.”

Part of the inspiration to start the business came from friends and family that would eat meals with Thiel and Buchanan and expressed how much they loved the food. While the couple was used to eating Korean and Peruvian style dishes they prepared for their kids, their friends helped instill the idea of building a food truck.

“Both of us had been talking to each other,” Buchanan said. “She had been in the food industry before and I love food, obviously, most people do, and with our backgrounds, we decided — I'm Peruvian, she's Korean, let's try to fuse that food together and see what we come up with. So, we got our money together and invested in it.”

Buchanan is a huge fan of Korean short ribs, which are available on the TuMi menu, along with Bulgogi, which is Korean thinly sliced beef usually made with a mixture of soy sauce, brown sugar, Asian pear, garlic, ginger, ground black pepper and sesame oil. TuMi also offers delicious kimchi fried rice and Buchanan is a big fan of combining the two dishes.

“On the Peruvian side, it's been fun fusing these foods together, because Peru actually has a deep culture of Asian immigrants, and so they've used a lot of soy based (dishes), a lot of fresh fish, things like that,” Thiel said. “One of our favorite dishes is ceviche, which we'll have as a special and it takes a little bit of a different twist than what your typical ceviche is. It’s still very similar and has that delicious lime base.”

Thiel continued, “One of my favorite dishes that is Peruvian is called Lomo Saltado. I think the reason I love it so much is it is pretty close to bulgogi, but it just has veggies in it. It's a stir fry. It’s served with french fries, which you can't beat anything served with fries. Ir has this delicious beef sauce that is stir fried in, and when those fries absorb that sauce, it's super delectable.”

Both Thiel and Buchanan recommend patrons combine their kimchi fried rice with any of the menu options and will find that it strikes a perfect balance.

“We have what's called a cau cau burrito, which typically in Peru is made with tripe, but we make it with chicken, and it has lots of herbs,” Thiel said. “It's almost like a Peruvian mixed with an African curry. Just the mixture of the kimchi fried rice and the cau cau together in a burrito makes it so bomb. We also do some really fun kid-friendly things, like a bulgogi quesadilla as a special. We're definitely looking to add more items to our menu.”

Both Thiel and Buchanan believe that there is an importance surrounding community, the ability to share other cultures' food and imparting that heartfelt cuisine upon their hungry customers and devotees.

“The main inspiration that I got, that I wanted to bring to the community, is growing up a lot of my friends obviously knew that my mom loved cooking at home,” Buchanan said. “We rarely ate out, if at all. She was always cooking a home-cooked meal. Whenever she would cook a home cooked meal, she always had enough for the community, whoever might be over at the house, so she would feed them. Everyone loved it. It was a heartfelt, home cooked meal, and it's from her country. She put a lot of love into it and care and passion into the food that she cooked. That's what I'm trying to bring to the community.”

TuMi is still within its first few weeks as a food truck business and is still ironing out the schedule, but have recently been parked in the Vision Collision parking lot along Yellowstone Ave from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Over the coming weeks it is likely that it will further establish a marque location and hours of operation.

“I think the biggest thing and best thing we could say is, ‘TuMi’ Pocatello is beautiful,” Thiel said.

To keep up to date on everything TuMi, you can visit its Instagram page at instagram.com/wearetumi .