My Life in Empanadas

Complete with really crappy empanada photos!  I don't see food photography in my future.  

With a bit of help from my friend Juli, I marched to the local panadería and said, "Me gustaría un empanada de cada sabor, pero no atun."  This is the danger here, living so close to so many kinds of empanadas.  Instead of a fat tire around the middle, I just have one large and ever expanding empanada. 

Ugh.  

Here are the empanadas that the local bakery offers (except for tuna):

• Cebolla y Queso:  Onion and cheese.
• Verdura:  Veggies.  Swiss chard, spinach, and onions.  (I think)  It is surprisingly Swiss chard-y.
• Carne:  Ground beef.
• Pollo:  Shredded chicken
• Jamón y Queso:  Ham and cheese.  These were once my favorite but I must have eaten too many.  Essentially it's just a slice of ham and cheese rolled up inside. 
• Humita:  Pumpkin and corn.  These have turned out to be my favorite.  It's mashed pumpkin with kernels of corn.  Yum!

Follow the labels in the above photo with a grain of salt.  Each empanada is unique in the way that it is shaped and the way that the dough is crimped and folded.  I got a bit confused when I tried to differentiate between all of them.  Many places offer a helpful empanada key, showing the shapes for each individual one.  And now I think that the verdura is actually the caprese:  mozz, basil, tomatoes, and olives.  It seems that I'm missing more than just the tuna.  Hmm.  Maybe my español isn't as foolproof as I thought.  

One day, while the kitchen door was open, I spied a counter full of circles of dough and little heaps of filling in their centers.  So rest assured, these are all handmade by real Argentines.  And fresh!