Empanadas

May 5th, I ran down to Catrinas Express in downtown Peoria for a festive “Cinco de Mayo” take-out. My friend, I hope he’s OK with me calling him that, Josh Lanning (https://www.joshualanning.com/) was doing a “pop-up” or “pop-in” with Catrina’s as a guest chef. He was slinging his Bright Bird friend chicken in a taco form, along with homemade empanadas.

The line was out the door. I waited nearly 30 minutes just to order, but found some great people to talk to as I ran into Shannon from the Peoria Art Guild and a bunch of her volunteers. During my extended chat with strangers, I saw that Josh’s Popup was doing just fine… His tacos were going over the counter, and the sign with his menu info showed the empanadas were sold out. BUMMER! When I finally got to the front of the line, I put in my order, and in a moment of cosmic kizmit, Josh stopped by the counter. I said I was bummed that they were out of empanadas, but happy it was going well. Josh gave me a look and told the register “lady” (what’s the right word that doesn’t sound condescending) that he had an extra.

Nice! I waited a few minutes and then took my food back to work. This was the same day I had been with Linda in the ER for her hip popping back out. I had left work and was feeling guilty for being gone; these 3o minutes felt like an eternity.

A few miles and minutes later, ensconced in a plastic bag and Styrofoam, 6 Bright Bird Chicken Tacos, and an empanada were on my desk, ready for consumption.

If you follow me on the socials… You know, I have one dude whom I normally have lunch with. Drew, one of my techs who has been with Fort’s for over a decade, is one of my most trusted foodies. I don’t know to many people who are as willing to check out the weird and wild places that show up on the fringes of the normal dining scene. That said… He, like me, is an easy “yes” for glizzies at COSTCO.

OK, enough backstory. Drew and I split the tacos, and I used my hands to break the empanada in half for sharing.

Empanada can mean a variety of Latin American-inspired dishes. I have become disenfranchised at midwestern empanadas because they are all wheat dough and savory pastry-inspired. I have never had a sweet empanada around here.. But in Memphis… Well, I’ll get to that in a second. So, when I took a bite of this Bright Bird attempt… I was thrown back in my office chair. That crunch. This was a cornmeal empanada. Holy crap. I have not had one of these in a few years. Inside the crunchy cornbread casing was a mixture of chicken and cheese… It was delicious. But that shell… The shell was magic. I got down to the last few bites… I was out of filling and decided to make this a “sweet” treat. I added some of the hot honey. I told Drew to do the same. He gave a big thumbs up.

I was cleaning up my desk from this awesome lunch, and my brain was turning… At that point, my mind was harking back to some magical meals in Memphis.

I could go all Bourdain about this… But I will try to make this short(er). We all remember things in visual ways, I think that’s the most common, but the sense of smell and taste bringing back memories is super powerful. I had a hit of that when the last few crunchy bites of corn crust and honey gnashed around my teeth and gums. This brought me back to Target House in Memphis.

Summer went to Costa Rica twice. Once was a 4H group that sent the students to a few group events, but eventually sent the individual girls to homes to live for a few weeks. I have to be honest. I was never nervous about this. It’s so weird. I am not sure Summer was even 16! I am going to look at the dates in the photos when I post this, so I will have some more verification. We dropped Summer off at Midway for a flight on Spirit Airways to Texas, and then on to Costa Rica.

Summer was placed in a home with a young lady named Allison and her mother, Jeanette (I’m sure others, but I am friends with those two on Instagram). Over the next few weeks, she lived in a small house in the mountains. By her account, she became very aware of bugs, bats, and other critters, along with seeing the value of a life that lives in one room of a home. Everybody lives their life in full view of the family in a home with no doors. Summer also came back with stories of the food, and especially empanadas. She loved them. And every time she saw them on a menu at local restaurants, she would order them. I never got it… Because I had not tried the ones she had in Costa Rica. I am not sure she even knew the difference because she was not a full-scale food nerd (yet, I was working on it). She just knew they were not the same.

Summer went back to Costa Rica the next year on her own, using her own money. Again, should I have been nervous? I wasn’t. She travelled with a backpack and a passport. I was jealous and very proud of her.

When Summer was brought to Saint Jude in Memphis for her cancer treatments… We tried to keep things fresh and constantly tried new food from different places in town. One of those places that I found was a Venezuelan restaurant near downtown called Sabor Carribean Memphis. (https://www.saborcaribememphis.com/) Summer was never much for eating at the restaurant after her second brain surgery… So, almost everything was brought back to Target House. This is where the memories click in. I remember opening up the styrofoam containers that were filled with our orders from Sabor. One of the items we always picked off the menu was the “Sampler plate”. The multiple empanadas could be made with a variety of fillings. The cheese empanada, with its corn crust and firm-but-gooey innards, was a winner every time. So good.

We sat on the small couch with our to-go trays on tv stands and shared the cilantro dipping sauce. Summer proclaimed that Sabor was the closest to Costa Rican empanadas she had tasted back in the States. I honestly didn’t know the difference until now. I loved those meals and oohed and ahhed with each bite. It was a moment. It was a meal. I know I will never eat at Sabor again… And I am OK with that, because I had a few bites here in Peoria that brought back memories as well as a trip to Memphis a fresh sampler plate can do.

All of this to say. I enjoyed my empanadas on May 5th. Probably more than anyone else that day.

Food is a memory maker.

Eat with friends. Cook. Pay attention. Support those who appreciate the craft.