Yesterday I went to La Bodeguita in Elephant and Castle to look at their range of Latin American foods. It has to be said that when I was there, most Argentine food seemed to me to revolve around meats and sweets. Despite their reputation for feistiness and passion, it was hard to find a food stuff which wasn’t beige and dusted with sugar. Unless it was brown, and coated in cheese…
I never did work out how Spanish women stay so thin while mainlining medialunes (delicious sticky croissants) but it’s definitely a mystery worth solving – they really are delicious. Obviously there’s nothing wrong with sugar and steak– clearly there’s a lot right with them - but yesterday reminded me of all the other interesting Latin American delicacies.
La Bodequita is hidden at the top of the sprawling Elephant and Castle shopping centre. It’s not particularly pretty but packed with shops selling foods, fabrics and interesting things from all over the world.
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| the tempting food shelves at La Bodeguita |
The shop– a cross between a deli and a take away kiosk – is packed out with exciting foods. The menu on the walls offers hot foods like empanadas (small meat pasties), chicharron con arepa (pork with a homemade corn bread) and chorizo. You can also order patatas rellenas – a famous Peruvian dish. Literally meaning ‘filled potatoes’, these look a bit like dumplings and are essentially mashed potato stuffed with a filling of meat and onions, whole olives, hard boiled eggs and other spices wrapped in pastry or deep fried. A cholesterol nightmare maybe, but a really really tasty one.
The people before me in the La Bodequita queue all ordered in rapid Spanish and took away hot empanadas or mysterious meats from the counter. My own attempts at Spanish were not exactly embraced wholeheartedly but I came away with two empanadas nonetheless.
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| The menu of traditional South American food |
The people before me in the La Bodequita queue all ordered in rapid Spanish and took away hot empanadas or mysterious meats from the counter. My own attempts at Spanish were not exactly embraced wholeheartedly but I came away with two empanadas nonetheless.
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| The counter at La Bodeguita |
The flavouring was good – particularly in the ‘pollo’ (chicken) empanada, but I prefer mine with a lighter pastry casing and am planning on cooking some this week. Unfortunately my attempts at castellano cooking conversation didn’t go down that well with the waitress so it looks like I’ll be scouring the city for empanada ‘tapas’ (the pasty cases surrounding the meat) alone this week. Do get in touch with any suggestions for my English empanada cooking adventure!
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| Pollo and carne empanadas |
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