IDAHO FALLS — Veraporn Higbee would always send her husband, Don Higbee, to work with a large helping of homemade Thai food. The delicious smells coming from Higbee’s lunches soon attracted the notice of his coworkers.

“The guys from work would always ask about what I was eating, so she would make a little extra for them,” Don said.

After some time, Don’s coworkers began buying meals from her. The biggest hit with them was her Oriental dumplings.

“Enough people told us we should start a restaurant, that we started looking into it,” Don said.

After realizing how difficult it would be to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant during a pandemic, the couple bought a food truck instead. Thaidaho Thai Food Truck opened on Nov. 20. The couple decided to put it near their house on the west side of town in the parking lot of Ski’s House of Guns.

“We live on the west side, but there’s not a lot to eat on the west side. We thought there should be somewhere good to eat on this side of town,” Don said.

The first couple weeks were slow, but now that word has gotten out about Thaidaho, the food truck has been busy. The most popular items are the Pad Thai and cream cheese wontons. The food truck serves a total of 19 different dishes. These include soups, noodle dishes, curry dishes, spring rolls and fried calamari.

According to Don, they have gotten a good response from the community.

“It’s been fun talking to the customers," he said. "It’s been rewarding getting to know them. Everyone has been pretty positive about it."

Knowing how cold it can be to wait outside for food in the winter, Thaidaho has pagers that customers can take with them to wait inside the car. When their food is ready, the pagers go off.

The majority of the food truck’s recipes are from Veraporn’s childhood. Don calls Veraporn “the star of the show.” Veraporn moved to the United States from Thailand five years ago. Food has been a way for her to stay in touch with her culture.

“What I’ve noticed about Thai people, is one of the first things they’ll ask you when you see them is, ‘Did you eat?’ They want to feed you right away,” Don said.

Thaidaho Thai Food Truck is located at 2627 W. Broadway. It is open from noon to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. You can learn more and see the complete menu at facebook.com/thaidahofoodtruck.