Lately I’ve had a hankering to do some deep food exploration in Westchester. It has now been nearly a year since I wrote up the report for Westchester Magazine’s “Eater” blog about the State of the Taco in White Plains.
Feeling the itch to go much deeper in the exploration, I’ve decided to take it on myself to try every empanada humanly possible in Westchester County to find where – or if – greatness exists in the realm of the wonderful Latin American turnover.
As usual, I started this quest with a query to Chowhound. Based on some previous notes, and some of the suggestions coming from that thread, these are the places currently on my target list.
- Los Andes Bakery, Sleepy Hollow, NY (map)
- Asi es Colombia, Port Chester, NY (map)
- Pollo Ala Brasa Misti Restaurant, Port Chester, NY (map)
- Quimbaya, Ossining, NY (map)
- Med, Briarcliff Manor, NY (map)
- Chapines Deli, Mt. Kisco, NY (map)
- Inca y Gaucho, Port Chester, NY (map)
- Panaderia Uruguaya, Port Chester, NY (map)
- La Nueva Puebla, White Plains, NY (map)
- Little Paraguay Deli, White Plains, NY (map)
- Tango Grill, White Plains, NY (map)
I know there are more places with empanadas in Westchester County (afterall, pretty much every Latin restaurant of any kind has them), but these are the ones I’m focusing on right now.
Sadly, I’m less than half way through the list. In the past three weeks, I’ve tried Panaderia Uruguaya, La Nueva Puebla, Inca y Gaucho, Los Andes Bakery and Med.
I won’t go into specific notes, but here are a few observations.
There is simply no replacing empanadas that are cooked on site. And based on my recent excursions and prior visits, only about 1/4 of the restaurants around here actually make their empanadas on site. Quality suffers dramatically as a result. Also, I’ve noticed a distinction within this phenomenon. In general, fried empanadas are made on site, while baked empanadas are cooked somewhere else. As a result, the baked empanadas are really coming up short. That’s too bad, because a great baked empanada is one of the best treats in life.
So, I’ll have much more detail to my notes in a few weeks. In the meantime, I’m sampling the untested places on my list, as well as exploring if I’ve missed some places on the list altogether. Ideas? Let me know…
Posted in Food Tagged: Argentine, Briarcliff Manor, Chilean, empanadas, Guatemalan, Inca y Gaucho, Los Andes, Med, Mt Kisco, Ossining, Paraguay, port chester, Quimbaya, Sleepy Hollow, Tango Grill, Westchester County, white plains
