When the climate will get chilly, certain, you could possibly simply flip up the thermostat. However there’s one thing even higher about monitoring down a handheld, piping-hot packet of yum that’s even higher at chasing these winter blues away.
It’s a worldwide custom – wrapping savory stews inside flaky, buttery carbs – so why not style your manner via the spices of the world by way of handheld snacks, whether or not they’re empanadas, pupusas or New Zealand-inspired mini-pies?
Listed here are our favorites in cities across the Bay, bakeshops and eating places that make their very own empanadas from scratch. (Did we miss your fave? Inform us about it by way of the submission type on the finish of this text!)
Javi’s Cooking, OaklandA buyer orders Argentinian empanadas at Javi’s Cooking in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. Javi’s Cooking gives candy empanadas and empanadas filled with rooster, meat, ham, pork, vegetarian and different fillings. (Ray Chavez/Bay Space Information Group)
If ever there was a Bay Space Mint for empanadas, Javi’s Cooking is it: They crank out lots of of fresh-baked empanadas every day, shiny with egg wash and stamped with the ingredient initials like huge, gold cash.
Javier Sandes hails from Buenos Aires and does his metropolis proud with expertly crafted empanadas that pair splendidly with a zesty, grass-green chimichurri (out there to buy by the jar).
“Most places source the pastry dough,” he says. “We make our own dough, and it makes the empanadas stand out from the rest. We use butter in our pastry dough, whereas most other doughs are made with vegetable oil or shortening.”
Javi’s Cooking began with 5 varieties 14 years in the past and now has greater than two dozen, together with halibut, candy corn-bechamel, Unimaginable Meals substitutes and “La Bestia” – a real-meat mixture of buffalo, elk, boar and Wagyu. The store depends on native sources for its butcher-and-vegetable wants and makes use of natural, when attainable, working with locations like Ledesma Household Farm and C & L Produce.
Empanadas are the tip of the Argentinian iceberg on supply. There are Milanesa steak and sausage-pepper sandwiches, alfajores with housemade dulce de leche, Brazilian espresso, conventional mate, native beer and South American wine. Order on the counter after which step into the solar to devour all of it in a cute street-side parklet.
The dish: The carne is a wonderful rendition of the basic ($5.85), mixing floor beef, purple peppers, inexperienced olives and hard-boiled egg right into a juicy, sweet-savory filling. The acelga ($5.85) is earthy and luscious with chard and ricotta, and the halibut ($6.85) is recent and piquant with Kalamata olives ($6.85).
There may be virtually countless selection to select from – dates/bacon/blue cheese, for instance, Caprese salad, and ham and Fontina – plus dessert empanadas in flavors like strawberries and cream or dulce de leche with bananas and walnuts. Can’t determine? Attempt ordering a six-pack of randoms in a “surprise frozen pack” ($19).
Particulars: Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. every day at 3446 Market St., Oakland; javiscooking.com.
Comalito, Rewood Metropolis
Cheese is paired with loroco — a Central American vine with edible flowers — and zucchini in these pupusas from Comalito, a brand new Salvadoran restaurant specializing in pupusas in North Truthful Oaks. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Space Information Group)
Tucked into a comfortable spot alongside North Truthful Oaks, the brand new Comalito Salvadoran restaurant serves up 9 sorts of pupusas — masa dough desserts with assorted fillings — alongside pastelitos made with achiote masa and full of floor beef, carrots, potato and inexperienced beans.
North Truthful Oaks, which has been dubbed Little Michoacan, as a result of it’s house to so many immigrants from that Mexican state, has a number of different newcomers to its culinary scene together with Cheverepa Venezuelan Kitchen and its arepas, served from the Redwood Metropolis Eats ghost kitchen, and Mexican brunch-centric Eskina.
The dish: Molten cheese oozes out of Comalito’s pupusas like joyous lava as you tear into every chunk. Six of the 9 pupusa varieties ($4.50 every) are veggie-centric, together with the intense and herby loroco pupusa, filled with cheese and the edible Central American flower bud generally known as loroco. The calabaza possibility, filled with cheese and zucchini, can also be glorious.
Pair these with a glass of housemade horchata made with morro seeds, which give every candy sip a heat, nutty taste enhance. You’ll be able to’t go mistaken with an order of crispy yucca fries, served with chipotle aioli.
Particulars: Open 4-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 3143 Middlefield Highway, Redwood Metropolis; comalitoco.wayline.co.
Greatest Artisan Empanadas, Campbell, and Large E Cafe, San Jose
The E within the Large E Cafe’s title stands for empanadas, espresso and Ernesto Could, the proprietor. He’s been making empanadas for the final 20 years at this store in San Jose’s Cambrian district and for the final 4 on the household’s Campbell eatery, Greatest Artisan Empanadas, with daughter Stephanie Solorio as his enterprise accomplice.
However his experience goes again to his teen years in Peru. “The recipe for the dough was passed on from my mother to me. And her mother had passed it on to her,” he says. He additionally realized a basic beef with olives and raisins recipe from her. “That’s the most authentic Peruvian one we have.”
Could discovered inspiration for lots of the different varieties from restaurant kitchens he cooked in years in the past. The wealthy Hen and Mushroom empanada, for instance, is his riff on a recipe from the long-closed Fresco, a preferred Palo Alto restaurant.
Savory empanadas can be found a la carte ($7.65-$7.95) or as lunch with a big aspect salad or potatoes (about $13.75). Candy empanadas ($4.10) embrace Peach-Blueberry, Apple-Cranberry and Raspberry Cream Cheese.
The eating places additionally do a brisk enterprise in espresso drinks, frappes and smoothies, with espresso beans sourced from the regionally owned Tico Espresso Roasters.
The dish: Attempt the peerlessly toasty Conventional Beef empanada, its filling dotted with piquant Kalamata olives and candy raisins, with a aspect of chimichurri. An ideal pairing. One other hit is the Mediterranean, which options Italian squash, Greek olives, spinach, onions and three cheeses (Monterey jack, feta and ricotta).
A few week earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, the household’s intelligent pumpkin empanadas, adorned to seem like footballs, will return to the menu.
Particulars: Each places open at 6 a.m. on weekdays, 7 a.m. on weekends. The Campbell location (https://bae.cafe), at 533 E. Campbell Ave., stays open till 4 p.m. every day. The San Jose store (https://mybige.com), 1683 Branham Lane, closes at 2 p.m. https://bae.cafe/
Sabores del Sur, Lafayette
Lockdown turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Guisell Osorio and her Chilean restaurant, Sabores del Sur. Osorio, whose enterprise hails from La Cocina’s kitchen incubator program, needed to simplify a menu that was extra conducive to takeout orders and shortly determined to focus completely on making empanadas.
Now in her twenty seventh 12 months serving flaky, handmade pastries full of South American flavors, Osorio is working Sabores del Sur serves lots of of empanadas per week — all to-go from her Lafayette kitchen. She does catering too — and for those who’ve been to Outdoors Lands any time within the final 16 years, you’ll have noticed her empanada stand.
Beef empanadas are among the many hottest eats at Sabores del Sur in Lafayette. (Susan Tripp Pollard/Bay Space Information Group)
The dish: Let’s begin with the scale. No dainty better-eat-three empanadas right here. One flaky, delicate however hearty empanada is a meal in a single. The preferred is the Chilean steak ($8.35), which mixes Chilean spices with diced beef, onions, onerous boiled egg, raisins and black olives. Probably the most flavorful of the bunch, she says, are the rooster empanadas ($7.95), which use her personal Peruvian spice mix.
Psst, you may order alfajores ($3.25) right here, too.
Particulars: Obtainable for takeout orders solely Thursday via Saturday. Order by 10 a.m. for pickup between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. at 271 Lafayette Circle in Lafayette; saboresdelsursf.com.
Sage Bakehouse Savory Pies, Montara
A seasonal vegetable mini-pie at Sage Bakehouse in Montara fills a flaky, buttery crust with butternut squash, white candy potato, carrots, celery, and caramelized onions in an herbed white wine sauce. (Kate Bradshaw/Bay Space Information Group)
Simply off of Freeway 1 on the San Mateo County coast, this charming cafe was impressed by a New Zealand journey proprietor Nick Lee took together with his soon-to-be fiancee — now, his spouse. The couple found savory, gourmand mini-pies all over the place there, together with in surprising spots like fuel stations.
Wanting to carry that pie-forward focus again to the states, Lee began promoting his pies at farmers markets in San Francisco, earlier than opening his personal brick-and-mortar outpost within the quiet coastal hamlet of Montara.
With greater than 20 sorts of pie ($10 every) to select from, the choice might be overwhelming. You can go basic, with a beef and potato or rooster pot pie choice, or strive a worldwide taste corresponding to a Hungarian Hen Paprikash or mole rooster with black beans. Caught? The bakery gives most pies as frozen, bake-at-home choices and is working a buy-five, get-one promo. The sausage rolls ($7), out there in spicy or gentle flavors, are common too.
The dish: The seasonal vegetable pie encompasses a thick, flaky crust wrapped round butternut squash, white candy potato, carrots, celery and caramelized onions soaked in an herbed white wine sauce.
Particulars: Open 7 a.m.-6 p.m. every day at 8455 Freeway 1, Montara; sagebakehousesf.com.
Kuboba Spot, Berkeley
A field of various Filipino-style empanadas and dipping sauces from Kuboba Spot in Berkeley, Calif. (John Metcalfe/Bay Space Information Group)
Whereas they is probably not the very first thing one associates with meals within the Philippines, empanadas are broadly loved there, having been introduced over by the Spanish throughout colonial instances. In flip, Filipino immigrants dropped at the States their very own type of empanadas – flaky and buttery, on the sweeter aspect and filled with rooster adobo, kaldereta (goat or beef stew) and different island-country favorites.
Kuboba Spot is a takeout-oriented operation close to the UC Berkeley campus began by Seyna Smith and Sam Bernardino, healthcare employees who through the pandemic determined to pursue their dream and open a bakery. The “kubo” within the title refers to a kind of stilt home widespread within the Philippines; right here, in keeping with Smith, it serves as a logo of household and love.
You’ll discover loads of heat at this bakeshop each within the pleasant staffers and the empanadas, which sit in show instances like scorching, little purses ready to be taken house. The bakery additionally runs a brisk enterprise serving milk teas, made with recent dairy and flavored with winter melon, pandan, black sugar and “popping bobas” (strive it, you is likely to be pleasantly shocked).
The dish: All of the empanadas boast brown and flaky crusts with a light sweetness ($5.95 every). The pork-meatloaf embutido is a hearty chunk with peas, raisins and hard-boiled egg. The longganisa omelet is an ode to breakfast with its garlicky, selfmade pork sausage, and the rooster adobo is zesty and flavorful.
There are flavors, too, that we’re betting are geared towards native college students, like pepperoni pizza and cheeseburger, after which dessert variations corresponding to mango cheesecake. Aside from that final one, every little thing advantages from a dip within the housemade chili oil.
Particulars: Open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday and noon-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday at 2618 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley; kubobaspot.com.
Casa Guzmania, San Jose
Twenty forms of savory and candy empanadas can be found at Casa Guzmania in downtown San Jose. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
When skilled musicians Cecilia Melendez and her husband, Rafael Vazquez, moved to California from Mexico Metropolis, they introduced with them her French horn, his trombone — and a trove of household recipes. Collectively along with her brother, Pedro, they opened Casa Guzmania, an empanada store in downtown San Jose named in honor of the household matriarch.
They began with about 10 savory and candy varieties and, in only a few years, the quantity has doubled. They divvy up the work within the kitchen. “I cook the cochinita, the mole, the tinga, and he cooks the beef, the chorizo, the spinach,” Melendez says.
Cecilia Melendez and husband Rafael Vazquez share the empanada-making duties. (Shae Hammond/Bay Space Information Group)
Enterprise is nice when there are conventions on the close by San Jose McEnery Conference Heart. “Other times it’s quiet. But we are growing step by step,” she says. They’ve added a comedy night time the primary Wednesday of every month, offering publicity each for the store and for native comics. The following one is scheduled for Feb. 5 from 6 to eight p.m.
The dish: Guzmania’s Mole empanada — filled with moist rooster — is a should for followers of that advanced sauce. Our new discovery was the Rajas vegetarian quantity, which mixes strips of roasted poblano peppers and corn in a creamy, tacky sauce. For dessert, the shoppers’ new favourite is the Guava with Cream Cheese, “made with real guava, not marmalade,” Melendez notes.
Particulars: Open from 9 a.m. to six p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday at 350 S. Market St., San Jose; https://casaguzmania.sq..web site/
Again A Yard Caribbean Grill, Menlo Park, Campbell, San Jose
Jamaica natives Robert and Annetta Simpson have cooked up a mighty lengthy menu for his or her Again A Yard eating places: They and their kitchen groups make their signature Jamaican Jerk Hen, Pork, Shrimp, Salmon and Tofu for platters, salads, sandwiches and wraps; quite a few Oxtail and Curried Goat dishes; Barbecue Hen, Spareribs and Sizzling Hyperlinks; plus wings, soup, a particular of the day, desserts and 10 aspect dishes, from cornbread to collard greens.
Whew. Why was it necessary so as to add Jamaican Patties to the choices?
For each sentimental and enterprise causes, says Robert, who formulated the recipes. “Patties are a Jamaican staple; as a matter of fact, patties are considered to be the equivalent of (American) hamburgers.”
They’re handy and straightforward to eat, he says, and are common each with clients ordering catering from Again A Yard and with San Jose State college students who frequent the San Carlos Road location.
The dish: Again A Yard makes three savory varieties, all scrumptious: beef, rooster and vegetable ($3.95 every). In relation to spiciness, the veggie and floor beef ones are the 2 tamest of the trio. (Add among the restaurant’s fiery, housemade mango-habanero sauce for those who like them hotter.) The rooster one, nevertheless, has a kick.
Particulars: Areas in Menlo Park, Campbell and San Jose (two eat-in places, one takeout solely). Hours differ however most are open for lunch and dinner six nights per week; see https://backayard.internet.
These bakeshops and eating places all make their very own empanadas from scratch, versus ordering in ready-made pastries from a industrial kitchen. Did we miss your favourite spot? Inform us about it right here:
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