Pumpkin Empanada
Posted on Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Name: Pumpkin Empanada
Purchased At: La Fuente
Price: $.60
Availability: Not Sure
I recently moved from my city of the last ten years, Long Beach, CA, to the Inland Empire. If you’re not familiar with these two places let me paint you a picture: Long Beach is a large urban beach town that is strongly liberal and has an ultra adorable gay ghetto; The Inland Empire is practically the desert, is hotter than freaking hot all the time, has probably never been called “ultra adorable,” is majorly conservative, and we’ve already had a “Yes on 8″ flyer put on our door.
As a result, I was feeling a little homesick and wondering if I would ever adjust to this strange place when I asked Shannon if there was a place to get Mexican pastries. She took me to La Fuente, a bakery/food-to-go in San Bernardino that, in addition to selling pastries, has tamales (that are supposedly really good) menudo, rellenos, and tortillas.
I’d been waiting for a few days to get my pastry because the first time we went there was a big sign on the door saying “Back on September 1st.” Well, I was back on September 1st early in the morning to find cases of yummy looking stuff. I had a difficult time not getting one of every thing.
On the back side of one of the case were the empanadas and on the bottom shelf was a pumpkin empanada! Here it was, the first day of Pumpkin Eatin’ Season, and I’d found my first product and it was in my new hometown. I was so excited.
I can’t help but compare this empanada with the last pumpkin empanada I had at Starbucks. This one was simpler with no cinnamon sugar baked on top and the crust was moist rather than flakey. However, the biggest difference was in the filling. The pumpkin filling was simple yet delicious. If there was any cinnamon or nutmeg in the filling it was minimal and there was not artificial aftertaste like the one at Starbucks, which doesn’t look like it will be back this year.
It was pointed out to me that this was their first day back from vacation so everything was probably made that morning. The pastries were certainly fresh and delicious!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Yep, cause Shannon ROCKS and the I.E. is so not as bad as you just portrayed. In fact, the Shannon was born and raised here and you certainly LOVE you some Shannon. Spoiled I tell you, that is what all this is about…you being spoiled with your little “beach city”. Hmm, haven’t been attacked by swarms of bees since you moved here have you? Yeah didn’t think so.
Back in the 60s my grandmother used to make pumpkin empanadas to give out at Halloween. It used to break our hearts to see the yard strewn with the pastries she spent hours making and which were out of this world delicious. Every time I think about those ungrateful kids throwing away those empanadas, it makes me hope they ended up working at some sewage treatment plant or other equally unenjoyable job.