Food truck brings Japanese cuisine to Fulton

Hoshi on Wheels opened Monday in Fulton, bringing sushi and Japanese Hibachi to the local food scene. Owners Tiar and Julie Bongkar bring the truck from Harrison, Arkansas, to fill the Japanese food vacuum in Fulton.
Hoshi on Wheels opened Monday in Fulton, bringing sushi and Japanese Hibachi to the local food scene. Owners Tiar and Julie Bongkar bring the truck from Harrison, Arkansas, to fill the Japanese food vacuum in Fulton.

Fulton's newest food truck opened for business Monday and sold out of food within hours of beginning its operation.

Hoshi on Wheels brought its services all the way from Harrison, Arkansas, to provide the Fulton community with hibachi and sushi. The truck is owned and operated by the husband-and wife-team Tiar and Julie Bongkar and can be found on South Business 54 across from Bartley Elementary.

"(Fulton) is a big enough town where you shouldn't have to drive 30 minutes to get sushi or any Japanese food," Julie Bongkar said.

The couple owns and operates Hoshi Japanese Cuisine in Harrison and decided to start the food truck back in May. Bongkar said they originally wanted the food truck to target the other half of Harrison, from which their restaurant drew few customers. However, that side of town was already dominated by three other Japanese restaurants.

"We were looking at different areas (to relocate to), and we liked Jefferson City and Columbia, but when we found Fulton and saw there was nothing here, we thought this would be a good place," Julie Bongkar said.

Her husband went to four years of culinary school and has worked as a sushi chef, while Bongkar has been working in the restaurant industry for much of her life. Tiar is originally from Indonesia, and Julie is originally from England. The two grew up in Florida.

The food truck's phone line buzzed with orders before the pair even opened their serving window. While Julie Bongkar explained they would be testing the Fulton waters to determine days and hours of operation these next weeks, she anticipates operating from 11 a.m.-9 p.m., or when they run out of food.

"With as busy as it's been, there's just no way we can have that much food ready to go," she said. "Rice only lasts four hours if you want to comply with health standards."

The truck ran out of sushi and hibachi rice by 1 p.m., but the couple spent an hour making new food for the later afternoon and evening crowd.

According to Bongkar, the food truck has been very well received by the Fulton community. Each time she posted to a Callaway County Facebook group about the truck's arrival, it was met with excited comments and shares.

"Not everybody likes Japanese food, you know, it's kind of an acquired taste," she explained. "But it seemed like the town was very welcoming of the idea to have something different out here."

The menu at Hoshi on Wheels offers a variety of Hibachi combination plates as well as 15 varieties of sushi rolls. The truck even offers its own "Fulton roll" that's stuffed with spicy salmon, crab meat, cream cheese, scallions and a chef's special sauce.

"It's definitely something different to have here in town. I like the idea, why shouldn't everyone else?" food truck patron Billy Dickens said as he received his order.