Dinner to Go, From Far Away

My daughter with a Chilean empanada cook

My middle daughter spent her junior year in Chile, and she developed a passion for empanadas. These vegetable or meat pastries are cooked to order throughout the country, but in the US, they are not as common.

Luckily, Fairway Market

Fairway empanadas

has stepped into the fray. The stores just introduced a Latin Table with empanadas and tamales.

The empanadas are fine - as long as you haven't experienced the freshly made ones in Chile. We visited my daughter and had some straight from the oven, so you can't really compare But my other 2 daughters didn't go to South America, and they loved the spinach-Portobello mushroom empanadas.

Even better are the tamales, with black beans (there are also meat versions of both, but we stuck with the vegetarian). They all come with spicy chipotle dip and avocado-tomatillo sauce.

Fairway tamales

These are great for combo meals - a healthier than fast food treat, plus a salad and you have dinner. And next time I stay in a hotel with a microwave and a fridge, I will bring a pack or 2 along. Somehow my kids are always starving once we get to a hotel and the food at hotels is usually quite pricey.

The empanadas and tamales are $4.99 each, for 2 and 4, respectively, and filling enough for a meal.