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Krista
Citizen
Username: Shortgrrrl
Post Number: 124
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 1:32 pm: | 
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are there any cuban/spanish restaurants near by where i can get a yummy epanada? |
papayagirl
Citizen
Username: Papayagirl
Post Number: 590
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 3:01 pm: |
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Nunzio's BBQ on Springfield Ave has empanadas, but they're a little different than you may be used to. Still quite good though.
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Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2541
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 3:29 pm: |
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Krista - I hope you find a good, local empanada.
slight drift:
this is NOT nearby, but worth sharing . I stumbled upon the adorable, yummy Empanada Mama
from the NY Times
Among the Empanadas, an Elvis Sighting
By PETER MEEHAN
EMPANADAS are many things to many people. They are a savory-sweet knife-and-fork food in Bolivia and a corn-flour-crusted snack in Venezuela. In Chile, empanadas are often stuffed with seafood, which would be an unlikely filling at an empanaderia in Argentina, the country most Americans associate them with.
At Empanada Mama, a tender young shoot in the thicket of restaurants on Ninth Avenue in the 40's and 50's, they are something else still: empty canvases, ready to be rendered in a thousand new and fanciful ways.
Empanada Mama is (and if you need to diagram here, feel free) a venture of Socrates Nanas, a first-time restaurateur, and Javier Garcia. They grew up together in Jackson Heights, Queens. Mr. Garcia owns the three Mama's Empanadas shops scattered across Queens. Mr. Garcia started Mama's Empanadas with another friend from the neighborhood, Alberto Bastidas, who has since left the Mama family to open Papa's Empanadas in Astoria. The Mama/Mama's folks disavow any relationship with Papa's, but a quick scan of their menus reveals that all offer a number of the same distinctive empanadas.
One is the Elvis ($2.50), a deep-fried belly bomb made with peanut butter and mashed banana that is troublingly tasty for something that is such an obvious threat to one's physical well-being. Then there is the Viagra ($3), a funky, fishy, unfortunate empanada filled with crabstick and other seafood (and I use the term loosely).
There is a mozzarella and tomato sauce empanada called the pizza ($2.25) and a Hawaiian empanada ($2.75) loaded with ham, pineapple and cheese. There is a cheese steak empanada ($2.75), a fritter dotted through with bits of beef and swollen with a ready-to-burst torrent of molten cheese that tasted like Cheez Whiz, though the management insisted it was Cheddar.
The selection can be maddening. There are nearly 40 empanadas to choose from. The simple beef filling is available in three casings: fried wheat flour dough, baked wheat flour dough or fried corn flour. Straight-ahead options like chicken, beef and pork ($1.75 to $2.50) are reliable, regardless of what they are wrapped in. Dessert empanadas ($2.25), particularly one stuffed with figs, caramel and cheese, are beyond reproach, but order with great reserve if you want to have appetite enough to eat one at the end of a meal.
Cheese-free empanadas elicited occasional allegations of dryness from my dining companions. I could not refute their claims, but dousing the offending specimens in one of the two house-made sauces - a peppery aji and a cilantro-spiked green sauce - dispatched the problem.
There is more to Empanada Mama on Ninth Avenue than to its siblings in Queens: daily specials; table service; beer, wine and sangria; and a slightly largely menu. The menu includes a section labeled tapas because, I imagine, it would feel lonely as the only restaurant in the city without one if it didn't.
There are arepas in the tapas section, a categorization I took minor issue with since an arepa is practically a full meal and an empanada is unequivocally a snack. No matter. Order the arepa stuffed with tender shredded chicken ($4.75). Tapa or not, it is one of the best things the restaurant serves.
Also listed among the tapas is the zapiekanka ($2.50), which in Polish means casserole. But at Empanada Mama the zapiekanka is half a baguette topped with sautéed onions and mushrooms and a hunk of barely melted Brie. It is served on a plate enthusiastically decorated with ketchup. It would be vexing to encounter such a dish in any setting, more so in a place with guanabana milkshakes (milkshakes of all flavors are $4.25) and meat-stuffed cassava fritters.
But for every zapiekanka there's a kielbasa-and-kraut-stuffed empanada that is much better than it has any right to be. Even if the more offbeat options can be hit or miss, one thing is certain: these are not your mama's empanadas.
Empanada Mama
763 Ninth Avenue (51st Street), Clinton; (212) 698-9008.
BEST DISHES Chicken arepa; beef, chicken and pork empanadas; Elvis empanada; dessert empanadas.
PRICE RANGE Empanadas, $1.75 to $3; tapas and salads, $2.50 to $7.95.
CREDIT CARDS All major cards; $15 minimum.
HOURS 9 a.m. to midnight daily.
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS All on one level. |
Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4705
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 3:53 pm: |
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MUST GO...
Pippi, can we bring our unadventurous HS friends??? It's M&M's old 'hood! J's too! |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2543
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 4:11 pm: |
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it's very cute, but really really small. Not good for a crowd. I went right before a bdwy show.
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Virtual It Girl
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 4707
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, July 7, 2006 - 4:41 pm: |
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Ok, sounds like fun, maybe one night with the girls! |
Jersey_Boy
Citizen
Username: Jersey_boy
Post Number: 1344
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 9:21 pm: |
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West Orange's Main Street has several restaurants that prepare Mexican and South American foods. Take your pick, I think there are at least four.
J.B. |
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