The new love in my life...

As some of you may already know, I am madly in love. Here´s the story of my romance with the Empanada.

I had noticed the Empanada before. I´d even had a couple. In fact, the first one I had was at a restaurant the first day I got here. But I was disoriented from so many hours of travel and my new environs, so I was mostly just happy to be eating something. I didn´t really pay it too much attention. The next encounter was a few weeks later at the peña hosted by the Talcahuano Sur Rotary in the lead-up to the 18th of September. That night, the Empanada and I really connected. But I thought it was just something people ate around the 18th. Little did I know that I would soon find myself completely smitten with this little treat...

I had passed a bakery - San Diego - near the University several times and noticed that it was always packed. I wasn´t sure what was in there, but eventually my curiosity got the best of me and I went in. I ordered by pointing. Empanada de pino grande. About $1.50 US.

I guess it started as a casual friendship. I´d stop in for one if I was in the neighborhood and hadn´t had much of a lunch. I guess I knew that there seemed to be a spark of something special between us, but I thought maybe I was just imagining it. Then I started going there more and more, almost every day that I was on campus. Then I found myself going out of my way to go there.

I realized I was in love when I started to notice all the other Empanada places in town and wondering what each one was like. I knew I had fallen hard when I began to plan my days around trying different Empanadas that people recommended or that had piqued my interest in my walks around town.

Why, you might ask, am I so enamoured with this delectable? Well, there are just so many things to love about it. It´s satisfying - giving you protein and just the right amount of carbohydrates. It travels well - you can continue your walk around town with it. It´s efficient - the "masa" holds everything in and you don´t have to worry about spills or drips. It´s versatile - you can get a big one if you´re really hungry or a little one if you want just a nibble. It´s humble - the most expensive one I´ve had was about $2.00 US and the most inexpensive was about $.60 US.

Empanadas are everywhere! There are different configurations - fried or baked, with beef, chicken, ham, cheese, seafood, and on and on. The kind I like - de Pino - has meat, onions, olives, sometimes raisins for a bit of sweet, sometimes peppers for a bit of spice and half a boiled egg all tucked neatly inside "masa" that has been folded according to the style of the place that made it (sometimes they´re semi-circles, sometimes triangles, sometimes rectangles) and baked in the oven.


Now the Empanada and I are in a full-blown relationship. I think about them when they´re not around, and I look forward to the next one. Each and every moment we´ve spent together has been special. I´m so glad I met the Empanada, and I think it was appropriate we shared Thanksgiving as this is one of the things I am so thankful for down here in Chile. I don´t know how I lived my life before the Empanada, and I hope to learn how to make them so that when I go back to the US I won´t ever have to live without them again. ¡¡Te quiero mucho, mi querida EMPANADA!!