Passion often takes a leap of faith and a lot of dedication to pursue. Local couple Joshua Pantoja and fiance Andrea Sanchez finally realized their dream food truck, Arepa Express. The project, which was expected to take six months, ultimately took five years to complete.
“We’ve had a lot of people say ‘You can’t do it. That’s hard. When will it be done? I don’t think you guys will ever finish it,’” Sanchez says, adding, “We kind of had to put earmuffs on and keep walking…that’s what you have to do sometimes.”
To accomplish it they survived a variety of adventures including selling an old mechanical bull to get the money for a refrigerator they picked up from a Philadelphia college.
The food truck’s offerings combine both Pantoja’s Puerto Rican background with Sanchez’s Venezuelan heritage. The soon-to-be husband and wife have married their ethnic cuisines to create a fusion unlike any other in the area.
Sanchez, who says her family has always had a passion for the art of cooking and baking, is the mastermind behind some of Arepa Express’s most popular dishes.
“My mother is more of the sweet baking [background], and my grandmother is more of the savory,” she says.
One of their signature dishes, the Arepa, leans to the savory side and showcases the diversity, colorful, natural produce, and locally sourced ingredients in their refrigerator. Primarily grilled on the flat top then quickly flash fried, the Arepa is then sliced into a pocket-like pita and stuffed with a cool, creamy chicken salad.
The couple says it is important that their food represents them, their passions, and the true nature of their cultures.
“People who are not able to go to those countries can enjoy it here…” Sanchez says.
The couple takes the truck to all kinds of events and has found Arepa’s most popular dish is their chicken and beef empeñadas. They can sell as many as 500 per festival.
Between the half moon of flakey and buttery crust has an excellent balance of textures and successfully pairs flavors of intense garlic, sweet bell peppers, and sautéed white onions to compliment the bold flavors of the chicken.
As for the beef empanada, it is mildly spicy, moist, not greasy, balanced, not overpowering.
Although Puerto Rican and Venezuelan food are the main cuisines of Arepa Express, Pantoja and Sanchez include the flavors of other cultures as well.
“We have Mexican, South American, Asian, we even have middle eastern [flavors] with some of the dishes,” Pantoja said.
At peanut butter chicken lo mein may not sound appealing, but the combination of the warm, silky peanut butter with salty soy sauce fuses together with the nuttiness of mushrooms and tender chicken to evoke the traditional foods of Thailand.
Of course, no Latin food truck is complete without the addition of legitimate street tacos. With a quick sear of the corn tortillas and a fine chop of the cubed steak, two delicately prepared boats support the ripe avocado, raw onion, and vibrant green cilantro.
These are served with Sanchez’s homemade salsa picante infused with a generous amount of fresh ingredients, blended garlic, onion, tomato, cilantro, and habanero added at customer request.
It seems as though Arepa Express not only has been able to keep a substantial following, they have recently announced their plans to open a new restaurant just 10 minutes away from Mercer’s West Windsor campus.
Pantoja says, “We are trying to create a spot where kids can come after school. [They] don’t have that anymore.”
To find out where Arepa Express will be next, visit their regularly updated Facebook page.
