Empanadas?

[katalina]

I am hosting a party with an Argentine theme in Berkeley.

Does anyone know a good place to find empanadas or other Argentine goodies, like dulce de leche desserts??

Thanks.

[pilinut]

El Porteno, sin duda! The owner is from Buenos Aires and he makes a lovely, flaky crust, just thick enough not to break, Beef is grassfed, chicken(with chorizo) is organic, and there's one with corn (humita) as well. There are ham with cheese, and another flavor, cheese and onion, I believe. $3 apiece.

http://elportenosf.com/

[Kristine]

I second El Porteno, I tried them for the first time this weekend at the new farmers market at the Metreon, I had the dulce de leche with banana and it was really good, The pastry itself was outstanding.

[clsatulovsky]

I forgot to mention they have really good desserts too!! :)

[rworange]

Empi isells Artentine empanadas at local farmers markets. Here's two reports about them. They also do catering so maybe they make other Argentinean dishes.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/400987
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/377916

There's not a lot of Argentine food in the Bay Area. Here was a similar post from early this year but it focused on restaurants.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/41088

There's a vendor at the Alamany Farmers market that sells Chilean empanadas and someone who posted about how these differ from Argentineas said they are pretty similar
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/421292

Someone mentioned that Lucca in SF had some Argentinean items
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/391821#2483833

Villa Del Sol is an Argentinean restaurant in South SF, so that might be an option.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/33793

Sorry for taking so long to reply, but Chowhound is so slow for me I can't get to many things anymore.

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Lucca Ravioli
1100 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110

Villa Del Sol Argentinian
423 Grand Ave, South San Francisco, CA 94080

Empi
501 Lakeville St, Petaluma, Ca 94952

[Melanie Wong]

Tango Gelato also has empanadas though they seem to be inconsistent in quality.

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Tango Gelato
2015 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115

[ML8000]

Not sure if it's the same place (Empi's) but I've had some empanadas at different farmer's markets (old oakland or lake marriot) and while they were pretty good -- they charged $5 or $6 bucks for two tiny empanadas...I'm talking sub-dim sized. For that much I expect enough to satisfy.

[lmnopm]

In Berkeley, you might check with Cafe Valparaiso to see if they can make a bunch to order. Their food isn't the best, but it isn't bad - it is chileno, not argentino. I don't know what kind of alfajores they make (if any) but they might be substantially different from alfajores argentinos. You might want to see if you can find Havanna Alfajores somewhere around here - they are packaged and exported from Argentina (and shelf stable for some time) but they aren't bad.

[ML8000]

Thanks for the tip. Funny you mentioned alfajores because I REALLY like those things. Re: packaged one, I had some at food show and they weren't good but I believe they were mass produced. I get my fix from Caffe Centro in South Park. I get the chocolate dipped one...I don't know if that's a bastardization but they're great.