Bits In Bites

On another beautiful Sunday afternoon, I wandered through the Trinity-Bellwoods area along Dundas St. W. I stopped off at Real Empanada for some lunch. A recent replacement of long-running Porchetta, they were offering an extra empanada with your 1st order. There was no menu as yet, but the choices were simple: fried colombian empanada with beef, chicken, or beyond meat. I would normally pick veggies options but I didn't want faux-meat so I got 2 chicken and 2 beef empanadas for $10.

The choice didn't matter as the stuffing was mostly potatoes and onions. If you didn't tell me what the protein was, I wouldn't be able to tell you. The yellow shell looked to be corn-based and wasn't as greasy as I thought given they were deep-fried. It was good but the corner and rim were too hard. The salsa was tasty but hard to extract from the tiny plastic sampler. You'd be better off buying a jar for $8.

I want to support local businesses but ultimately this wasn't a good deal. A single empanada would run you $4 which is only slightly cheaper than a baked one from Jumbo Empanadas. But the latter is 3 times bigger. In fact, even the 4 for $10 deal would still be about twice as expensive. In addition, the jumbo one is stuffed with actual meat. Finally, as a personal preference, I liked the baked version more. This was the second time I've had fried empanada (the other was at Tostado Cafe) and I'm not really a fan. If I wanted fried bite-size eats (with potato), a samosa is a better option.