On a sunny and windy Sunday at Reno’s year-round farmer’s market, families laid down their picnic blankets and enjoyed the live music. Food trucks and tents selling products like handmade jewelry, locally grown fruits, fresh bread and lemonades lined up at Idlewild Park.
Around noon, customers were unsure of which food truck to try for lunch but some like John Yang knew the food truck to go to.
“I love having ethnic Filipino, whether it’s Filipino or Hispanic. All those owned, minority owned businesses are great to see,” Yang said.
Yang stood by the Malaya food truck, waiting for his order of lumpia, barbecue pork and chicken adobo. While his buzzer vibrated and flashed, Yang went up to the truck’s window. He was excited to try out Malaya’s food for the very first time.
Malaya is Tagalog for “free.”
Aren Reynormal co-owns Malaya with his wife Therese Reynormal. Aren said he is proud to represent Filipinos through their food.
“Having the fact that Reno is very small, very small footprint nang (of) Filipino, dito (here) and, I mean, yeah, we just have to educate people that, hey, we're here,” Aren said.
Aren immigrated to the US in 2008. He wanted to follow his wife Therese who’d already immigrated a few years before him.
They’ve known each other since grade school. Both grew up in Cavite, Philippines.
Therese jokes that their love story started as puppy love. The couple now have three daughters.
“There will be times when I’ll be upset with him for personal reasons because you know we’re husband and wife. But we have an event, so we show up, I show up and we’re working together, but I’m not talking to him because I’m still upset. And then by the end of service, you just forget it,” Therese said.
Therese said their business is part of who they are. She choked up when reminiscing of their business’s growth.
“Naiiyak naman ako para kasi marami naman kaming events na hindi okay (It is making me cry because there were many events that were not good), but we just kept going. Kahit na walang pumunta sa event nayon (even when no one went to the events) and we paid this much, we just kept going. It’s okay,” Therese said.
She said there were times they paid for vendor fees and prepared for events days prior but they didn’t make any profit at all.
“My husband will call it our tuition fee. I think just being consistent kasi (because) you believe in what you’re doing and you really want to show ano talaga ang paniniwalaan mo (what you believe in) so kahit na (even if there are) a lot of challenges,” Therese said.
She said staying consistent is how they can show they believe in their business despite the difficulties. Slow days and negative reviews are just part of the learning curve.
In the first six months of the business, Malaya used to only be a pop-up tent. With the continuous support from their customers and Aren’s retirement money, they bought a food truck.
“Funding the business, I took my retirement. I took some of my retirement money because we didn't want to, how do you say that in English? Pinanindigan, pinanindigan naming and pagiging malaya (we stand by becoming free), we want to be free of debts,”Aren said.
Aren juggles a few jobs such as a career counselor and recruiter for the army. He hopes Malaya will be his family’s main source of income one day.
His favorite dish from their menu is the tapsilog. It’s a traditional Filipino dish with a fried egg and beef strips paired with garlic fried rice.
While the customers’ favorites are their vegan pancit and tapa sandwich. Malaya’s version of the traditional Filipino pancit has wheat noodles with tofu and vegetables. The tapa sandwich is a brioche bun split in half and filled with beef steak, fried egg, vinaigrette dressing and fancy aioli.
Aren said their staff contributes significantly to Malaya’s growth.
“So that's always been one of our missions as well, for our staff members to be inspired to have their own eventually,” Aren said.
He says seeing his staff work hard inspires him to do greater things.
Since they were young, Aren and Therese have been each other’s rock. And they still are. Some day in the future, they hope to have a brick-and-mortar Malaya.
