Shortly after moving with his family to the Katy area from his native Veracruz, Mexico, in 2009, Manuel Abascal purchased the domain name for a potential future eating establishment.

After five years of waiting, he said he decided to follow up on his dream in January in light of the oil and gas industry’s recent downturn.

Abascal opened Piggy Pibil—a food truck with a permanent location adjacent to his office at 26717 Westheimer Parkway.

Described by those close to him as a jack-of-all-trades, Abascal—the owner of an oil and gas importing and exporting company and a five-time Ironman Triathlon finisher—said he is also a self-taught chef who aspired to bring cuisine from southern Mexico to Texas.

Abascal runs the business with his wife, Irasema, and sons, Manuel Jr. and Rodrigo. He said the authenticity of his Yucatecan food serves a niche within the Katy community.

“You can find a lot of Mexican food here, but that is not real Mexican food; it’s more Tex-Mex,” he said.

The name Piggy Pibil is derived from a traditional Yucatecan pulled-pork dish called cochinita pibil. Rodrigo said the name is intended to be a humorous mashup of “cochinita,” which translates to little pig, and “pibil,” which translates to “buried” or “cooked underground.”

Growing up in Mexico, Rodrigo said food and culture had an intimate relationship with each other.

“Just like every other Mexican family, we have a lot of social gatherings,” Rodrigo said. “A lot of times we had parties or gatherings at the house, [Manuel] would cook for everyone. And every time he would cook the same dish—it was cheese cochinita—a lot people would say, ‘Man, you have to open a restaurant; you got to start something.’”

The majority of the truck’s menu items are based around cochinita pibil, with best-sellers including the Piggy Taco—a corn tortilla containing cochinita pibil topped with pickled red onions and habanero peppers—and the Piggy Torta—a French roll filled with cochinita pibil, refried black beans, avocado, red onions and habanero peppers. Other menu options include the torta adobada—made with pork shoulder—the chicken mole taco and the pambazo, a sandwich with refried black beans, chorizo and panela cheese.

Rodrigo said with demand growing and in order to compensate for recent challenges, the family plans to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant under the same Piggy Pibil name in September. The new location will be at 4031 FM 1463, Ste. 60, Katy, in the building previously occupied by Phillies Hoagies & Cheesesteaks.

The food truck will remain open with an emphasis on catering and special events, he said.

“We want to be able to accommodate our guests a little better and, at the same time, have an even bigger menu,” he said.