From the New York Times earlier today: Empanadas are many things to many people. They are a savory-sweet knife-and-fork food in Bolivia and a corn-flour-crusted snack in Venezuela. In Chile, empanadas are often stuffed with seafood, which would be an unlikely filling at an empanaderia in Argentina, the country most Americans associate them with. At Empanada Mama, a tender young shoot in the thicket of restaurants on Ninth Avenue in the 40's and 50's, they are something else still: empty canvases, ready to be rendered in a thousand new and fanciful ways. ... There is a mozzarella and tomato sauce... More

From the Daily News comes word of "Pizza the Argentine Way" at Las Americas of Corona, Queens: What makes it Argentinean is the addition of "faina," a crisp top crust made of harina de garbanzos (chickpea flour). The faina is slow-baked separately and placed on top of the pizza before putting the whole thing in the oven again. The resulting slice ($3.70) is a kind of wedge-shaped sandwich with a distinctive crunchy top and a flavorful, melted ooze in the middle." Doesn't sound too bad. I wonder if faina is anything like panelle, the chickpea-flour fritters found in such places... More