After a big slab of charcoal grilled bife (beef), our favourite thing to eat in Buenos Aires is empanadas.
Usually baked, but sometimes fried, these delicious pastries are generally filled with meat or cheese and Porteños don’t need much of an excuse to order a box from their local empanaderia. Friends coming over? Picnic in the park? Big football match on TV? Just peckish? All are occasions for locals to go loco over empanadas. Empanaderias even home-delivers!
Porteños all have a favourite empanaderia and a favourite type of empanada – they know just which one they want to grab when the box opens because each type has a slightly different shape.
Our favourites are carne (minced meat), carne picante (spicy minced meat), cebolla y queso (onion and cheese) and jamón y queso (ham and cheese), but these days they also have dozens of other unusual and exotic flavour combinations that are in fashion at the sleek new breed of upmarket empanaderia. Personally, we prefer the traditional, local, simple places that specialise in just a few types and always have the most delicious pastry – which is not easy to achieve.
We’ve tried them everywhere – from the cute little old ladies who hand-make them in front of you at the Feria de Matadores on the weekends, where they go for around US$1 each, and go brilliantly with a cold beer, to eating them as a starter at the upmarket parilla, La Cabrera where they’re nicely matched with a glass of Malbec.
We can confirm that there’s no such thing as a bad empanada!
Oh man! I can’t wait to go home and order una docena!
Nice Article. I love empanadas as well. Actually I love all the Argentinian food. I lived in Córdoba, Argentina last year and there there is a kind of empanada that they called Empanadas Árabes, it is in a tringle form. I looove it! Anyway, nice post! There is an article with useful facts about Buenos Aires nad as well about empanadas and Argentinian food that I love to read http://www.bsas4u.com/bsasquickfactsandcityinfo.php
La Casa de las Empanadas in Cafayate, Argentina, was my absolute favorite! Thanks for taking me back…
(http://www.ciaourte.com/blog/2010/argentina-5-reasons-to-visit-cafayate-argentinas-quiet-escape/)
Corn is my fave! Ummm now I want some!!!
It would be very interesting to compare and contrast the various versions of the humble empanada throughout South America. After 5 years in La Serena, Chile, I learned about the 3 basic kinds found along the north-central Chilean coast: “empanada de queso”, with cheese and deep-fried; “empanada de mariscos”, mostly seafood, sometimes with cheese and deep-fried; “empanada de pino”, stuffed with ground beef, a peeled boiled egg, an unpitted olive, sometimes raisins, and baked. Often the second version is with one kind of seafood: scallops, crab meat, clams, mussels, etc. Yum!
That project would be a great excuse to travel the length and breadth of South America, wouldn’t it? Exploring the empanada trail. Yum! Only spent a few days in La Serena, but I really loved it. Stayed in a charming B&B owned by a very kind family.
I love the corn ones too! Oh now I want some too!!! But no chance of finding any here in Siem Reap unfortunately and we don’t yet have a kitchen :(
Couldn’t agree with you more! Went to Argentina and I was grabbing themat eevery available opportunity – I don’t eat beef but they were delicious with cheese cheese, chicken, pork and all manner of other flavours! It was a real food highlight for me!
Glad you enjoyed them also. They’re fantastic snacks for travellers. Love the way they usually package them in boxes too, so they don’t crush – handy for long distance bus/train rides. Thanks for dropping by!
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Thanks! Appreciated :)