Baked Beef Empanada
by Celia Sin-Tien Cheng
February 4, 2006
POMAIRE
371 W 46th St
(8th & 9th Aves)
New York, NY 10036
212-956-3056
I was really excited to try Pomaire, which apparently is the only Chilean restaurant in New York. I wonder why that is. Well, if you find any others, please let me know.
Our friend, Maria Isabel, has been telling us about Pomaire since last summer. Half Chilean, Maria Isabel was delighted to show my sister and me what Chilean food is about.
We started with a typical Chilean drink, pisco sour. Pisco is a hard liquor made from grapes that is the national liquor in both Chile and Peru. Pisco sour is a cocktail that mixes pisco with lemon, sugar, egg whites and ice cubes. It is absolutely delicious. Much like the Brazilian cocktail, caipirinha, it’s sweetness disguises the strength of the liquor, but I could tell how strong pisco is, and, if I had a couple more of these seemingly dainty drinks, I could easily get into trouble.
After we ordered, servers brought out the onion and herb pan amasado and pebre, which basically are a clay-oven baked bread typical of the Chilean countryside and a crushed tomato-based salsa that goes with it. The pan amasado is extremely dense. I was so fascinated with the bread and the accompanying salsa that I had two servings. That was a big mistake, considering all the food that was coming. Word of advice, the bread and salsa are delicious but save some appetite for the main meal too.
Our first appetizer was a baked beef empanada. A single portion of this empanada is larger than most I’ve seen served in the City. The empanada is truly tasty, with a mix of ground beef, onions, black olives, hard-boiled egg and spices such as cumin and bay leaf. We also shared a celery and avocado salad drizzled with lemon juice, which was nice and refreshing to offset the beef empanadas. Maria Isabel explained how she sometimes comes to Pomaire sometimes and just orders two empanadas and a salad for dinner. That sounds like a good plan.
For main, we shared the congrio with margarita sauce — eel with margarita sauce and rice — and pastel de choclo — a meat and corn casserole served in a sizzling clay pot. As mentioned earlier, I had so much bread that I was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable due to my expanded waistline. By the time desserts came around, I couldn’t stuff in another bite. However, I wasn’t going to let the chance of trying Chilean desserts pass me by. We had the torta mil hojas — thousand layers cake — and the lucuma merengue cake. The torta mil hojas is interesting because it’s like a mille-feuille except that the layers are made of dulce de leche (or “manjar” as the Chileans call it). What really drew me in was the lucuma merengue cake. Lucuma is an indigenous fruit to Peru and Chile, often dried and made into powder and mixed to flavor milk and ice cream. The lucuma flavor in the cake was so unique because it tasted less like a fruit and more like caramel to me. I only had one bite, so I can’t go into much more description, but I can’t wait to go back and try it again.
Pomaire is located on Restaurant Row in the Theatre District, but I have a feeling that it is overlooked by many. The atmosphere is cozy and the service is extremely friendly and professional. The walls and shelving are decorated with Chilean pottery, copper work and other handicrafts. (The name “Pomaire” comes from a town in Chile of the same name where the typical pottery is heavy, solid-colored black and brown, used in cooking and serving traditional dishes.) There is a strong sense of that South American warmth, and it felt more like eating at someone’s house than at a restaurant.
Often at a loss as to what to eat in this area of town, I would definitely recommend Pomaire for a home-style meal that is rather novel in the City.
Also in Beef, Chilean, Hell’s Kitchen
