'Crazy Banana Puddings' owner shifts dream into new gear with food truck

Jamal Wiggins has dreamed of making good food for people since he was a kid. The 29-year-old is living that dream every time he's cooking up something special in his 'Crazy Puddings' food truck.

Two to three times a week you can catch him at Johns Hopkins Hospital and he can count on nurses, doctors and other hospital staff to come to his window for lunch.

On the menu, are fried fish, wings, funnel cakes, and more, but the main attraction lies in the name.

"The pudding," Wiggins said. "It doesn't matter what I sell on this truck. The pudding is going to always be top tier."

Originally, banana pudding was his staple dessert, then other flavors rose to the top of the list for his customers

"Our top seller is our strawberry crunch which is similar to strawberry crunch ice cream that I grew up on and for some reason a lot of people are jumping on the Oreo," he said.

If you're feeling a little adventurous with your taste buds, he's got you covered there too with combinations like his sweet potato pie banana pudding.

If you look at the traffic he gets at Hopkins, it's safe to say the customers trust his culinary judgment.

"I’ve had people get a pudding, 10 minutes later, their whole unit is outside from Johns Hopkins," he said.

Wiggins is no stranger to some of the people eating his food. He was an employee at Hopkins for years.

"A lot of people that come by and support me are people that I worked with," he said.

From word of mouth to the nearly 23,000 followers on his Instagram page, the support he's been getting has given him some much-needed momentum after shutting down his brick-and-mortar location.

Nowadays he's dreaming even bigger.

"I want to have my trucks in places like Baltimore, whether it’s Philly, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, just different places like that," Wiggins said. "And I want everywhere I go, to know the Crazy Pudding name.

He's hoping to make sure his journey serves as an example to other young black entrepreneurs thinking about taking a chance on their dreams.

"It’s an honor to be black, to be able to run a black business [and] to show other people that you can do it."

Just to double down on how serious Wiggins is about making sure Crazy Puddings was a request, check out this tattoo on Wiggins' leg.

WMAR

You can keep up with the stops Crazy Puddings will make on a daily and their menu by following the page on social media

Instagram: @crazy.puddings @jamalwiggz