Sunday, June 26, 2016

Uruguay: eine Ueberraschung

Back in the fall, I happened upon the Pecados truck at the Winterfeldplatz market, which led to a spontaneous lunch of Uruguayan empanadas. When I tried to find them there again recently, they were nowhere to be seen and it seems they've relocated to other markets (Spittelmarkt, Fehrbelliner Platz, and Mauerpark). This is too bad for me, but maybe better for you? Hopefully because the empanadas were quite good, if not life-changing. I've spent time in Chile and can assure you that the ONLY way to make good meat empanadas is to chop the meat yourself with a knife. You simply cannot get away with purchased ground meat. That said, I don't think I've ever had a meat empanada outside the Southern Cone that was made with hand-chopped meat. Pecados is no exception, but I guess we can't judge them too harshly if nobody else is willing to do it. In all fairness, according to their website, they do sell Empanadas de Carne Cortada al Cuchillo (meat empanadas chopped with a knife), but they didn't have these the day I found them and in the picture on their site, the meat looks like it's in big pieces, not minced. In any case, if you happen upon Pecados, have an empanada and most definitely have an alfajor (dulce de leche (AKA manjar) between two crumbly shortbread-ish cookiesmaybe the world's best sandwich cookie (when done well)). After the alfajor you won't care if the meat was pre-ground (or get the spinach one, which feels untraditional to me, but I liked better than the meat). 


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