Nobody was cooking it here
Queens is one of the most Filipino corners of New York City, and yet the answer to “where do you get good Filipino food around here?” was usually a shrug and a long train ride.
So at the end of summer 2025, Mark Mendoza, who everyone calls Macky, and his cousins stopped waiting for someone else to open one. They bought a truck, parked it on Queens Boulevard in front of the old church, and started cooking the food they grew up eating.
The name says it: swabe is Filipino slang, lifted from the Spanish suave. Smooth. Easy. Nice one. It is what you say when something just lands right.
Chaolong Palawan
After the Vietnam War, Puerto Princesa in Palawan became a refuge for Vietnamese families fleeing by boat. They brought pho with them. Over the years, in Filipino kitchens and Filipino hands, it changed. Sweeter, richer, closer to a beef stew poured over noodles, tinted with annatto instead of chili.
What came out the other side was chao long: a Vietnamese dish that became thoroughly Filipino. It is a whole chapter of history you can eat.
Macky did not like it at first. He was seven, it did not taste like the Filipino food he knew, and he said so. He came around. Now it is the dish the truck is known for, and the one food writers cross the river to try.
See it on the menuThe crew
Family and friends, each running the part they’re best at.
Macky Mendoza
Shapes the menu and the signature dishes, chaolong Palawan among them. The reason the beef is simmered as long as it is.
John Fuentes
Brought the beef tapa to the truck and keeps refining every recipe on the board until it tastes the way it should.
Alex Mendoza
Runs the accounts, answers the messages and books the events. If you have DM’d the truck, you have spoken to Alex.
Ken Ensoy
Keeps the truck running and the neighbourhood relationships strong. The logistics nobody sees but everybody feels.
More than lunch
Cook it like home
Short menu, long cooking times, no shortcuts we would be embarrassed to explain. If it would not pass at a family table, it does not go out the window.
Make room on the sidewalk
Folding chairs and a couple of tables, because eating standing up alone is not how any of this is supposed to work. People stay and talk. That is the point.
Listen to the regulars
Half the menu additions came from customers asking. Tell us what is missing and there is a real chance you will see it on the board.
Written up
“At a new Filipino food truck in Queens, the chao long shines.”
Grub Street“Home-style Filipino food… a solid spot if you live nearby or want to tie it into a food crawl of the area.”
The Consuming Couple“We wanted to share the flavors we grew up with in a fresh, exciting way.”
Bold Journey
More blocks, more seasons
The plan is not a hundred locations. It is to be somewhere new often enough that people who cannot get to Elmhurst still get to eat this food: more neighbourhoods, more local events, and seasonal dishes that come and go with what is good.
The fastest way to know where the truck is parked next is Instagram. That is where every schedule change and pop-up gets posted first.