Daily Archives: December 17, 2009

From the Wikipedia: Empanadas

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I’m hungry. From the Wikipedia: Empanadas.

Empanadas are stuffed pastries originally from the Iberian Peninsula. They get their name from the Spanish verb “empanar,” which means “to bread.” They are most often filled with some form of meat, and are for the most part completely awesome.

The Wikipedia believes that empanadas were derived from muaajanat, savory pastries popular among the 8th century Berbers that invaded the area in the Umayyad conquest of Hispania. The Wikipedia doesn’t have an entry for muaajanat, but it’s safe to say they were delicious.

Empanadas were first brought to the Americas by European colonists, though I imagine they were stale by the end of the boat ride.

Today, 22 different nations can claim varieties of the empanada. Empanadas are made with a variety of ingredients and prepared in a variety of ways, and the empanada’s Wikipedia page is amazingly exhaustive. It’s worth a read, but I’d like to highlight a few details:

– Medellin, Colombia apparently boasts a city-wide love of pork and chorizo meats. I’m investigating accommodations.

– El Salvadorian empanadas are not really empanadas at all, but fried plantains stuffed with sweet cream. So probably still really good.

– Empanadas in the Mexican state of Hidalgo are known as pastes, and were brought to the region not by Spanish colonists, but by British miners. They get their name from Cornish pasties, which are also available in Wisconsin and the upper peninsula of Michigan and which are way too dry.

– The list of similar dishes includes stromboli, knishes and Hot Pockets. “Stromboli Knishes and the Hot Pockets” would be a decent name for a band.

Nearly every carnivorous culture has come up with some sort of way to wrap some sort of meat in some sort of bread: the sandwich, the meat pie, the burrito, the beef patty, the pork bun, the gyro, the pupusa, the corn dog, the schwarma.

I could continue, but you get the point. Meats wrapped in breads are about as universal as creation myths, and usually way more satisfying. Their ubiquity should be a source of pride for the human race.

And thanks to globalization, they are available in ever-increasing varieties. This is one of the reasons it’s great to be alive and hungry* in the 21st century.

*Not hungry in the starving sense obviously. Hungry like a guy who is about to enjoy an empanada.

Start the movement

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Rob Neyer passes along a list from Thomas Boswell proposing ways to speed up baseball games. One of them caught my eye:

Sorry about “God Bless America” at the seventh-inning stretch, but it needs to go. It was a fine idea after 9/11. But it has served its purpose. And it wastes two minutes.

I don’t know how much time it really wastes, especially since they don’t play it at every game, but I didn’t think it was that fine an idea after 9/11.

I’m not out to ever make this blog about politics, so forgive me if I tread a little close to the line here.

I get why parks started playing the song when they did. It was an emotional time, and one when everyone felt the need to do something — anything — to somehow pay homage to the horrifying things that had happened.

But the song itself always seemed like a strange choice. One of the big selling points on the ol’ U.S. of A. is freedom of religion, and “God Bless America,” coming on the heels of attacks closely tied to religious fundamentalism, felt like a reactive and potentially alienating choice.

Plus it’s just not that good of a song. “America the Beautiful” is like 100 times better, especially if it’s being performed by Ray Charles on video.

Also, I’m not sure there’s a more patriotic song than “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.”

And today, for better or worse, the playing of “God Bless America” at baseball games only serves to remind us of an awful thing that happened eight years ago, and to create situations like this one. If the pursuit of brevity forces its league-wide elimination, then so be it.

Man of straw

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The Daily News has more about the Mets’ pursuit of Jason Bay today. John Harper:

Though all of New York seems to be waiting impatiently for the Mets to make a big move this offseason, they are negotiating at a deliberate pace with Jason Bay.

Let’s edit that:

Though all of New York me and my colleagues at the Daily News seems to be are waiting impatiently for the Mets to make a big move this offseason provide us with easy fodder to write about, they are negotiating at a deliberate pace with Jason Bay.

Done.

The impatient Met fan, this year, appears to be a bit of a straw man. I thought he was out there a few weeks ago when I wrote this post, then I spoke to him again here.

But check out the comments section on Matt’s measured, reasonable post about the Mets’ offseason so far at MetsBlog. Nearly everyone agrees with him. And if you want a good barometer for the going sentiments among Mets fans, there’s no better place to check than the MetsBlog comments section.

Anyway, what’s more important is the rest of the Daily News article. It basically says that the Mets don’t know that there’s another bidder out there for Bay, so are resisting the urge to extend their offer to five years and are trying to feel out the market for the right-handed slugger.

That’s good. Heck, that’s great. If that’s true, that’s the best thing I’ve heard about any of the Mets’ offseason processes in a long time.

I’m still not sure Bay is the absolute best fit for the Mets, but I know he’s a terrific hitter who managed to mash AL East pitching for the last couple of years and tends to pull the ball, which appears to make him well-suited for Citi Field.

I don’t know if the Mets think Bay is a better fit than Matt Holliday or just feel he’s a better value play, nor do I know how they came to whichever conclusion they made.

Either way, their patience is probably a good thing. Provided Bay is willing to play in New York and interested in making the most money, I doubt his agent allows him to sign elsewhere without giving the big-market team with the hole in left field and a clear need for a strong right-handed bat ample opportunity to beat the deal.

Luckily, Mets fans seem willing to wait it out.

Items of note

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John Madden is living like a total baller. “Before him, nine 63-inch TV monitors flanked a 16-foot-by-9-foot screen, all provided free by DirecTV.” Sign me up.

Glenn Beck apparently made a good point about football helmets. Dashiell Bennett’s recap at Deadspin means you don’t have to watch it.

Joe Posnanski makes an exhaustive and convincing Hall of Fame case for Tim Raines. Bonus points for titling it “Make it Raines.”

I agree with Matt Cerrone and Eric Simon. Like I said yesterday, the Mets have not done anything to damage the team yet this offseason, no matter what the papers say.