Going Out to Dinner...Or Not

So, the BF and I finally went out to dinner on Sunday night, after several failed attempts earlier in the month. Going out to dinner sounds so nice but then when the time comes to actually get up and get dressed, our resolve tends to falter. A few weeks ago we got back from soccer and had plans to go out, but were too tired so we just ordered empanadas instead.

But oh, such empanadas they were! We ordered from Pekín, my favorite empanada place in Buenos Aires, and they were so good that we ordered them again the next night…the BF now informs me that he doesn’t even want to look at an empanada.

Anyway, Pekín is a pizza place located on the corner of Honduras and Godoy Cruz in Palermo, but their empanadas are the star of the show. Actually, I’ve never tried the pizza so it might be good too, but we’re talking empanadas here, so hush. At 3.50 to 4 pesos a ‘nada, they aren’t the cheapest you’ll find, although they are certainly nowhere near the most expensive, especially with inflation. I discovered the place with Eli a few months ago when we were walking around Palermo looking for somewhere to get dinner…a pre-dinner snack, if you will.

As far as standard empanada choices go, the carne picante is actually picante, the cebolla y queso has more onion than cheese (as opposed to the cheese bombs you sometimes get from other places), and the spinach is tasty and rich with a few walnuts for a crunchy surprise.

But the best empanadas on the menu are the cordero (lamb), cantimpalo, and pancetta y ciruela (bacon and plum). Many menus don’t have cordero empanadas, and this one is particularly good. The meat is well cooked and juicy, and there is quite a lot of it packed into the little pastry wrapper. As for cantimpalo, I had never tried it until the BF saw it on the Pekín delivery flyer and ordered it. Oh, the food jealousy!

You know when you order something and then someone else orders something different and you try it and theirs is SO much better than what you ordered and you feel really sad and upset and wish you could order what they got, but it’s too late now? I get that a lot. Diner’s remorse. Like buyer’s remorse but with more calories.

Anyway, when we ordered the same empanadas the next night, I got myself TWO cantimpalos because they are just that good! Cantimpalo is an orange salami (if I remember what the BF told me correctly, I was focusing on the empanada) that tastes a lot like pepperoni. Anyway, the empanada is stuffed with chunks of this delicious pepperoni mixed with sauce and some cheese, and it is heaven. I’ve never seen it on another menu, so call Pekín asap and try it!

The last empanada is the panceta y ciruela, and I consider it the dessert empanada. Stuffed with a mixture of pork, bacon, and dried plums, this ‘nada is slightly sweet yet smoky, the perfect ending to the meal. I will end my ode to Pekín with the the loveliest 8 digits in the world: 4833-9600. Call them and order today.

Well. After rambling on about Pekín for several paragraphs, I have completely abandoned the original post about the restaurant we went to when we actually did manage to get out of the house. I guess I’ll come back to that later today…must do some work before Argentina plays Greece in their last game of the preliminary rounds!