TL;DR: Street food, quite literally. Every bit of it is as authentic as it sounds, is as tasty as it should be, and was definitely worth all of the hype and the entire wait. Hot, colourful, and robust is the best way to describe the arepas here, and it is without a doubt one of the must-tries from around town.
From the information that I can gather, Na Menche is a good truck which can be found all-around the place, often dropping into the mega-popular West End Markets and always managing to draw a crowd. To get it out of the way, there is good reason for that to be the case, and it is simply because this is some of the most characteristic, most robust, and most flavoursome fare that can be found anywhere - where in a brick-and-motar structure, or in an engine with four wheels.
It had come around to the start of the year for many a wrestling fan, with the first cab off the rank on the WWE Network with its pay-per-views. That as the NXT Takeover before the big four, and this time they found themselves in Philadelphia (which itself was fantastic, a final match up of perfect score with excellent event). What that meant was the usual ritual, get some delivery and eat in front of the event. For once, the hectic schedule allows live-watching the event which from the American time zone translates to around lunch-time in this nape of the woods.
Going onto the UberEats app, it was basically aimlessly wandering through the options before landing on the choice. If there was an option for cheesesteaks available, it would have definitely been the one that I chose - but alas, none. For the real choice, this choice was one that I had seen several times beforehand, and definitely considered it many times; a good reason being that is contains a couple of favourite snacks of my house mate. With it being a food truck, it is not always within the delivery area so it was all about grabbing the bull by the horns. had looked at it several times beforehand and with it being a food truck that means the availability is not always constant. That led to ordering it in advance. All it took was to sit back, relax, enjoy the show and go out and collect the stuff when it arrived.
With how good it was, let's just say this was possibly the first time that I recall that the delivery complimented the choice. Latin food has something of an allure, let's just say that, and Na Menche Place is going to be one of the examples I point to for good reason. Not one weakness was found within the entire pack here.
And what a selection of items there were. With the menu, they keep it precise and succinct. There are several varieties of empanadas, and areaps, plus tequenos for something to snack on. They also have a range of sodas from around Mexico and Latin America, as well as several of the basic favourites, as well as a few sweets to round off the entire meal.
To put an analogy forward, there is the perpetual debate between whether the hamburger and the hotdog. For me, that is more or less laid to rest; the real debate has to be between the empanada and the arepa, both so similar with slight variations that each give them some common aspects as well as good contrasts. Both of them are also really good, when they are hot and fresh from the fryer.
Without any doubt, since they were both available, and I was getting a feast for a couple of big stomachs, a selection from both was chosen. These were two kinds of arepas, the peluda, and the bandeja paisa varieties, plus a pabellon empanada to split, and a serving of the plaintain and cheese tacquenos.
Starting off with the empanada, the size of those suckers from here is one that has to bee seen. They would well suit a substantial snack around mid-afternoon, and can easily be split into several pieces. The coating around the filling was buttery, hot, flaky and robust which really finished it all of. The filling inside was a mixture of hot minced beef, sweet plantains, some creamy feta cheese, and a whole lot of black beans for good measure. Each aspect was characteristic in its own right, giving a good balance of flavours with the sweetness of the banana being complimented and contrasted with some umami beef, and the beans help plump it up and give it a rich taste, plus the cheese simply wrapped it all up.
As for the arepas, two were gotten. Initially it would have been one each, but these suckers were substantial enough to be cut into halves, so both members here got to try both kinds. Both times, the cornmeal bun was hot and buttery. This made it the perfect match for the peluda - a good mixture of shredded beef and grated cheese, a simple combination with no need of explanation - but the better combination would definitely go to the "baneja paisa" arepa. Minced beef, red beans, fried plantains, some pork crackle, and chorizo sausage. I only got a small bit of the pork crackle, but even the tiny bit I ate was just as good as always with its oily crunch. The chorizo added some smokiness that went well with the simple flavour of the beef, the red beans added a more savoury and deep aroma to the mixture, and the plantains were sweet and creamy.
As it was already said, all three of these suckers were good - as were the tacquenos that came on the side. The best way to describe these is that they are akin to spring rolls. The cheese and banana combination works surprisingly well, especially with the feta being hot and melted, combining with the cooked banana creating a sort of custard-like filling that is sweet in flavour, and solid in texture. Dipping them with some hot sauce only made them better.
A strange choice at the time and in retrospect, I got a Malta Pony as a beverage - mainly for the house mate. Like usual though, this got split with pouring into separate cups. One flavour in a big range of beverages which are a bit hard to describe. While the presentation is similar to a beer, or a some other malt-based beverage, they are non-alcoholic. Brewed and available within the Caribbean area, it also has a big visibility in West Africa.
Getting past the digression, the flavour of the Malta Pony is slightly sweet, almost a caramel-kind of aroma that is not unlike what is present in root beer, and I could easily imagine this being in an American diner, or used as part of a float. The texture was smooth, and it were gotten iced cold from the fridge on a hot day, then it would be out of this world. While it was enjoyable, this can't really be part of the critique for the place since they didn't make it - but nevertheless, this was a good addition.
Finally, it came to the crunch time for deciding if Na Meche was worthy of getting that coveted 5.0-score. Simply called "Tres Leches", which is a dessert that is made from several kinds of milk, topped with a soft meringue, then flavoured with a good drizzle of caramel. It was a pretty simple sweet with a soft, and smooth composition that was like eating mousse. The caramel flavour - or dulce de leche, to be more precise - was certainly noticeable, and while a bit on the sweet side, did not have the teeth-rotting stickiness often attributed to caramel flavours. Admittedly, it was a bit on the simple side and fairly light, but after all that is said and done, it is suffice to say, that in the end, the caramel dessert pushed what is the little food truck that could into the pantheon of greats from around town.
What else is there to say? From the confines of a food truck, all of it rested well on the laurels of the food, which would have made the owners bank on it not merely being adequate. It had to be something exceptional, something that would be worth standing in the rain to order if it needed to be the case, the food just had to kick ass essentially. Indeed, that is what it did, and it has made my fondness for the South American cuisine to come to light once again. Just don't ask me to rank any of them, or point out any highlights, since it was on full throttle from first bite to last.
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes