Of all the things you could eat when wandering the streets of downtown Manhattan, whether it be a knish, a pretzel, a slice of pizza, a samosa, a soft taco dripping with salsa verde, the thing that appealed to me the most on my first day in “the city” was this.

It’s an Argentine empanada, served by a Salvadorean counter guy (not pictured), in New York along side Mexican hot sauce. It had tuna and some kind of sauce inside, and was quite tasty, though the dough would have been much better had it been heated in a convection oven, rather than the microwave held behind the counter. I was feeling very pan-american when this $4.00 empanada was handed to me, and was happy to see that despite the normal diminutive size of Argentine empanadas, this one was roughly meal-sized. In a case where your appetite is worn down by the heat, I suppose.

And this is what the place looked like inside:

(Ruben’s Empanadas, Church Street Location, I believe).

At the time of this meal, Argentina was still in it to win it re: world cup, and we were still haunted by the idea of Maradonna stripping off and running around Buenos Aires. Chile had already been trounced by Brazil, and I was still hoping Paraguay could pull off a win. Maybe rather than an empanada I should have been eating chipa guazú, instead.

But I’ll never give up on my cheese and corn empanada (with scallions!) from the Picá de Los Cuñados on Brasil, just off the plaza. I’m back on the 16th, who’s in?