On The Food Show (airs each weekday 2-4pm on WGSO 990AM,) producer Patty and I frequently refer back to my many food obsessions, like housecut fries, NY style pizza, and jambalaya, to name a few. Empanadas, hand pies, or anything wrapped in puff pastry certainly belong there. And chocolate, of course.
Yesterday while meandering through the adorable seaside town of San Clemente, my eyes fell on a tiny little place in the corner of a strip mall set back from the street. It said The Real Empanada, and the word "empanada" was the only thing to recommend it. A man sat alone at the only outdoor table in the parking lot. (There were none inside either.)
In short, there was nothing to appeal to me about this place other than what they sold. But that was enough. I went in to find a bare bones kind of place with a small case and about four different kinds of empanadas stacked inside, along with a few other kinds of round pies. In hindsight I wish I had left with a sack of these, but I only had two.
The burger one was essential because that would remind me of our own Natchitiches meat pie. And I chose chorizo as the other one because that’s the real empanada. There were sauces in the offing so I got a Chimichurri and a Garlic Habanero.
After the single inhabitant left the lone table in the parking lot I could have taken it and had a less challenging meal dipping my sauces, but I wanted to continue exploring this exciting discovery of charming San Clemente. I juggled the bag of empanadas and sauces as I walked along. The chorizo version was so good and so Mexican, and so unique in texture that I almost turned around after two bites to get another. But it was a large pie and I had two of them.
The flavor of this pie reminded me of the old Manuel’s hot tamales, but the texture was definitely unique. It didn’t need anything, but just for yucks I tried the Garlic Habanero sauce on it. The sauce was terrific in itself, but much too hot for me. It was also too much to juggle the pie, sauce cup and bag at once.
The burger pie was indeed like our Natchitoches meat pie, and I preferred eating it without the sauce. But Chimichurri is an irresistible sauce and I had to eat it with the pie.
Usually the crusts on empanadas is a little too thick even for me, who never met a pie crust I didn’t love. This crust was absolutely perfect. Not too thick but thick enough to hold the stuffing without tearing.
The pies were filling enough that I wound up not eating a sit down lunch at all. It was the perfect walk-around snack on a perfect day in a pretty perfect place called San Clemente, alongside the Pacific Ocean, glittering in the sun.
