Bite me

A walking tour of empanada emporiums

by Nina Willdorf

STREET TREAT: empanadas are a low-cost meal on the go.

Carbo-loaders, take note: we who like to munch while we walk need not live by bagels alone. Toss that cinnamon-raisin, onion, garlic, or barely kosher blueberry bagel and say hola to its South American amigo, the empanada.

These tasty fried turnovers are shaped like a half-moon and are about as big as your palm. Common to many Latin American cultures, they go by a variety of names and may be filled with anything from broccoli to beans to beef. But no matter what you call them or what's inside them, they make a satisfying snack that will only set you back about a buck.

In Jamaica Plain, El Oriental de Cuba whips up a chicken empanada ($1) that the English side of the menu calls a "stuffed patty." The stuff inside, shredded boiled chicken, was rather slimy and tasted a little off, though the hot, spiced dough did make up for it. Down the street at La Pupusa Guanaca, the Salvadoran cheese empanada ($1) was smallish and on the salty side, but the dough -- crispy, browned, and filo-like -- provided a nice balance in taste.

Buteco, a Brazilian restaurant in the Fenway, makes beef, chicken, spinach, and cheese "pasteles" that are pretty much indistinguishable from empanadas. The chicken version ($1) far surpassed the beef, which was oily enough to leave a pool of grease on its brown bag.

La Mamma, in Brighton, won the prize for variety -- its metallic display case is filled with Chilean empanadas in 10 flavors. The mushroom version ($1.20) was generously stuffed with a whipped, creamy mushroom paste. The crispy dough was on the greasy mass-manufactured side, but the turnover passed the eat-while-you-walk test like a champ: no dribbling, no mess.

The finest empanada was at La Mamma's Colombian neighbor, El Cafetal: the bright-orange beef version ($1.05) was small but savory, and the fried cornmeal dough was moist without being greasy. But perhaps the most unusual was the Salvadoran breakfast empanada ($1) at Somerville's Taco Loco: a fried banana stuffed with a sweet, milky mixture and coated with crunchy sugar granules.

Restaurants mentioned in this article:

* Buteco, 130 Jersey Street, Boston, (617) 247-9508.

* El Cafetal, 479 Cambridge Street, Brighton, (617) 789-4009.

* El Oriental de Cuba, 416 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-6464.

* La Mamma, 190 Brighton Street, Brighton, (617) 783-1661.

* La Pupusa Guanaca, 378 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, (617) 524-4900.

* Taco Loco, 25 Union Square, Somerville, (617) 623-7972.