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African Diaspora: Food Truck In Peru Serves Up ‘Lekker’ Fare

African Diaspora: Food Truck In Peru Serves Up ‘Lekker’ Fare

Peruvians are getting to know the meaning of “lekker” — a favorite South African slang term — through their taste buds, thanks to entrepreneur Stuart Hoy and his Lima-based food truck business.

Of Dutch origin, the word lekker means “cool, delicious” or, for Spanish speakers, “bacán,” according to a story by Agnes Rivera from PeruThisWeek.

Hoy, a health and wellness expert from South Africa, moved to Lima with his Peruvian wife and two young sons. There in the African diaspora, he converted an abandoned combi — another South African term, this one for a Volkswagen van — into a food truck business named Lekker.

Hoy brought the fun, the flavor, and the sometimes-annoying sounds of his homeland with him to Lima. Lekker serves simple, tasty treats such as grilled sandwiches (braaibroodjie), salads, and rooibos tea from South Africa, PeruThisWeek reports. If customers are able to blow a vuvuzela Hoy keeps in the truck — the South African horn made famous in the 2010 World Cup — they get a food prize.

Now that Hoy has finally overcome the bureaucratic hurdles involved in getting the required paperwork from the strict Lima municipality, his yellow-and-white Lekker van will soon to be found in various districts of Lima such as the Colegio Franklin Delano Roosevelt campus during lunch hour.

Hoy joined the Asociacion Peruana de Food Trucks. Association members including Lekker will be at gastronomic festival, Misutra, in September.

Hoy hopes to expand Lekker to include four more food trucks by the end of the year with other themes ranging from sports-bar food to ceviche, according to PeruThisWeek.