A new Filipino food truck is opening in Tucson this week

When Sarah Bamba wakes up each morning, she doesn’t want a stack of pancakes. She doesn’t want scrambled eggs and bacon. 

She wants Filipino food — so that’s what her husband Donovan Bamba makes.

“Initially we knew that Donovan wanted to cook (for a career) and when we were thinking about what to cook, we were like, ‘What’s the thing that I want most in the world? What’s the need?’ and the need for me was Filipino food for breakfast.”

The couple started Rice For Breakfast in 2024, an informal pop-up serving Filipino food. They pretty instantly knew they wanted to open a food truck next.

“We were like, ‘We don’t know how we’re going to get there but we’re going to land,’” Sarah says.

Now two years later, that dream is becoming a reality. The couple is preparing to open Bamba, a food truck parked at Z-Street, 2731 E. Broadway Blvd. Bamba will serve Filipino breakfast, lunch and dinner six days a week beginning Saturday, Aug. 22.

‘The opposite of greed’

Both Sarah and Donovan have long worked in the food industry. 

“When we were thinking about our art and what we wanted to do with it, we thought of all the tools that we had and we were like, ‘We can sell food,’” Sarah says. “We set up in the parking lot at our house. We bought camper stoves and my husband was on the wok and we had a fryer going and we offered everything by suggested donations. We started from the ground up and then started looking into markets.”

Then they saw Dee Buizer, the owner of the now-closed Thai restaurant Senae Thai, opened a food truck.

“She was one of my old bosses. We were like, ‘We’ve been wanting to go in that direction too,’ and she let us cook out of her food truck a couple times at Crooked Tooth,” Sarah says. “Our first couple pop-ups were scrappy and out of the generosity of other people. It’s the same thing with this food truck — the fact that we get to be at Z-Street is wild. That’s because of the generosity of the Gebremariams.” 

Sarah met Luke Gebremariam, son of Z-Street founder Amanuel Gebremariam, when she worked at Time Market. Z-Street, completed in 2025, is home to Zemam’s Ethiopian Cuisine, Zerai’s International Bar and Zedamo Ethiopian Coffee Shop.

“When they closed the other location on Speedway and started to build Z-Street, Luke said, ‘If you know anyone who bakes, we’re looking for someone to do food at the bar,’” Sarah says. “My husband has a history of baking so he started baking for the bar and we all became family. Our kids are the same age, so we just kind of mushed. We’ve been hanging out ever since.”

The Gebremariams knew the Bambas wanted to one day open a food truck — and Amanuel made it happen.

“Amanuel asked Donovan one day if instead of working for him in the kitchen if (Donovan) wanted him to essentially buy a food truck for us and rent it out to us — that’s crazy. We were like, ‘What do you mean?’” Sarah says. “We were like, ‘What about competition? What about—?’ and Amanuel just wanted to do it. It was really pure — the opposite of greed.”

A love for kare-kare

Sarah is Filipino and Chamarro — she was born in Guam and moved to Washington in 2004, then eventually to Bisbee where she graduated from high school. 

Donovan is not Filipino — but Sarah’s relatives jokingly call him the best Filipino cook in the family. He’s the one in the kitchen at Bamba. 

“Before we met, he had never cooked anything Filipino. When he started getting integrated into our family, he just dove head-first,” Sarah says. “We would buy a bunch of books, he would ask my mom, he would test all these things out. He would be like, ‘Is this what it’s supposed to taste like? Is this nostalgic for you?’” 

Bamba will be open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. The early menu includes items like coconut milk pancakes, chicken tocino, house-made longganisa and lugaw.

“I feel like a lot of these dishes are sweet and spicy — I feel like that’s the Filipino way,” Sarah says. 

All of the breakfast items will be available for dinner, in addition to items like lumpia, fried chicken and kare-kare. 

“Kare-kare — that’s the dish I would ask for on my birthday,” Sarah says of the meat stew cooked in a peanut sauce.

For anyone who has never tried Filipino food, kare-kare is Sarah’s first recommendation.

“It’s such an adventurous thing. Diving into kare-kare will check off all the boxes in terms of how I want someone to receive Filipino food,” Sarah says. “I hope it surprises you. I hope it makes you think differently about a common pantry item. It blends sweet and savory the way that all Filipino dishes do. To me, kare-kare is so warming — it’s at the heart of what Filipino food is.”

Food is at the center of Bamba, but it’s also about family. Sarah and Donovan have two children under 4 years old, making it harder to have traditional jobs without the expense of daycare. With Bamba, their kids can be present — especially at a family-friendly spot like Z-Street.

And at the end of the day, Bamba is the couple’s way of sharing what they love with the community.

“I think it’s important to have a voice wherever you go. I think your voice is your power — that’s kind of the mantra I’ve had ever since I gave birth to my son,” Sarah says. “I don’t think there really has to be a reason to exist other than we do. We’re cooking food for our family and our friends. We’re not looking to expand or do more or make a bunch of money. We’re just alive and doing the things we do. I don’t think there’s some grand reason or something I want to say in a megaphone. I just want to do the thing that we love.”

🇵🇭 Bamba is located at Z-Street, 2731 E. Broadway Blvd. Hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday, beginning Saturday, Aug. 22. For more information, follow Bamba on Instagram. 🇵🇭