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Spice Hawaii

Oahu

Images by: Logan Laveti

As the morning light spills over Kaka’ako, Che unplugs the Spice Hawaii food wagon from its charger, preparing for a long day of serving tasty meals from sustainably-powered wheels.

Spice Hawaii is the creation of high school sweethearts Ajanta and Che Vora, and the first step in their mission to preserve island wellness. When the couple first came to the islands, they asked themselves “How do we pay homage to and respect Hawaii?”

The answer came in the form of their wagon, which is nicknamed Butterfly. “[Butterfly] is designed to represent and epitomize the Kamehameha butterfly,” and its silent beauty “is our way to pay respect to this beautiful island,” said Che. As the first fully electric food wagon in Hawaii, Butterfly comes complete with LED lighting, hot water, two refrigerators, and three skillets—all of which Ajanta uses to put a tasty local spin on Indian dosas.

For a year and a half, Che was Ajanta’s guinea pig as she worked to carefully pair the chutneys, cheeses, and, of course, spices that now fill Spice Hawaii’s menu. For the Voras, “the clean energy idea came before clean food,” but now the two pair beautifully as the couple serves healthy rice crepes while preserving a healthy island environment.



“What we’ve done is we’ve intersected art and culture with hospitality and cuisine, and infused the element of sustainability and health” Che said gazing proudly at Butterfly.

“We’ve come to this point in time where we not only have to do stuff the right way and the smart way, but you also got to do it the most efficient way, and by being clean energy we check all three of those boxes,” he said, smiling. Down the road, Che envisions a fleet of solar-powered Butterflies empowering island chefs to bring their creativity to a broader community, while doing their part to save the global community as well.

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