Love it. Menus on mobile are ripe for redesign and this is great. Also in terms of the hamburger menu and this system, I like the general pattern of offering more information before an initial choice but keeping a reference in the background when something else is the focus, which you’re using — eg:

• First example I saw was the use of magnifying icons in the OS X dock — the one about to be selected gets easier to see and click but the others are visible.
• You’re using it for the first stage of the sliding menu, which I think is a best practice.
• Then the hamburger icon could have “menu” on it when you’re at the top of the screen but it shrinks to just three lines as you scroll (while staying visible).

But I don’t think the need for words with the hamburger icon is mostly for clarification. I think the use of words helps it stand out and can also make the actionable surface bigger in contexts where we want it to be an easy choice.