You gotta try the barbacoa at this food truck


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WHAT: Latin Arepas Tropical Street Food

INFO: latinarepas.com | Facebook | Twitter | 937-626-4188

We Daytonians are living in the Age of Street Food, and what an age it is.

Your Dayton.com staff remains hard at work, putting our shoe leather to the concrete in search of the very best in variety and quality of the area’s mobile restaurants.

If you see the brightly colored Latin Arepas Food Truck, we say, by all means try it out!

Latin Arepas specializes in Venezuelan, Colombian, Caribbean and Latin American Cuisine. The menu is simple: arepas, tacos, empanadas, rice bowls, and chips and salsa. The food is fresh; the prices, competitive.

If you’ve never had an arepa, be bold because life is short. An arepa is an unleavened, gluten-free cornmeal patty that’s grilled. Put all sorts of goodies between a pair of them, and you have an exotic sandwich.

Besides chicken and steak, the food truck offers barbacoa. If the word looks familiar, it’s because barbacoa is the forefather of barbecue. The ancient Taino people of the Caribbean and Florida invented barbacoa by cooking meat, along with onions and cilantro, in holes dug into the grounds.

So how does barbacoa taste? Quite heavenly, with chiles, onions and garlic, a variety of spices, plus a hint of vinegar, or maybe lime.

With it I requested black beans, lettuce, tomatoes, corn, cilantro, jalapenos, avocado, sour cream and white feta. You have a choice between feta and cheddar – order feta. Its bright tanginess is a perfect complement to the barbacoa and other ingredients. What I had is called the rabellon on the menu.

I ate it on a park bench while watching people go by, which is exactly the thing to do living in the Age of Street Food.

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