TULALIP, Wash. — Ryan's REZ-ipes is the winner of Best Food Truck in 2022's Best of Western Washington viewers poll.
Each time this big blue rig opens its window to hungry customers, Tulalip tradition merges with a food truck feast.
"My name is Ryan Gobin and this is Ryan’s REZ-ipes food truck and catering,” said the owner Ryan Gobin, taking a short break from prepping food for hungry customers from Everett’s At Large Brewing & Taproom, one of the places the truck occasionally shows up.
The truck’s name came from customers during a Facebook poll, and it reflects the owner’s home.
"Represents me because I’m from the Tulalip Reservation, and these are all my recipes, so you got REZ-ipes," Gobin said. "So it all works."
The logo represents the owner himself, it’s a design by his grandfather.
“There's a salmon in it and an eagle in it, and we come from the salmon people. And my Indian name is yəx̌ʷəlaʔ siʔab which means Honorable Eagle. So as a whole it represents me and my family.”
All of Gobin’s recipes use fresh ingredients. Crispy fried cheese is also a staple. The most popular items are the cheesy pulled pork tacos, a huge kalbi steak burrito, and frybread, served with sauces ranging from lemon curd to raspberry freezer jam.
The tacos are a perfect union of that crispy cheese and pork that's been smoked for 14 hours. Gobin smokes a new batch daily and can go through up to 100 pounds of it a day.
And his frybread is fluffy and sweet, a treat born in hard times.
“Frybread is a comfort food, it's actually been around for several generations. It's just made up of a few ingredients, it's something Native Americans made way back in the day when they received commodities. They had limited supplies of food back then so they used what was provided.”
Ryan's REZ-ipes is a family affair, his mom Cindy works the cash register,
stepdaughter Isabelle cooks by his side. Before he opened the truck in 2016, he served his community as a police officer.
"I actually have people come to the truck that I've arrested, back then when I was a cop,” Gobin laughed.
Today he prefers serving food to serving warrants.
“I like seeing people happy when I provide them good food.”
He hopes to get another food truck and maybe open a restaurant in the future.
But right now, he's happy to be voted "The Best" and to share his Tulalip home cooking with all who step up to his big blue truck.
“Like my grandpa told me when I was younger, ‘Never forget who you are or where you come from,’ and I'll always think of that place as home. Tulalip will always be home to me.”
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