Cumen Cumen

There is no shortage of places to buy empanadas in Buenos Aires, and surprisingly enough, there can be a big difference in quality depending on where you buy them from.  I recently went to Cumen Cumen.  They have three different locals; Palermo, Caballito, and Barrio Norte.  They specialize in empanadas, selling 22 different varieties.  In fact, that is all they sell other than a few desserts and drinks.   I figured because they only sell empanadas, they should be pretty damn good.

I was wrong.  I went to the location in Palermo, and liked what I saw on the menu.   In addition to the usual flavors of empanadas, they had some different combinations, for example Roquefort, celery, and walnuts and mozza, chili peppers, and sausage.  I ordered the Roquefort, celery, and walnuts and a carne cortada a cuchillo.

The empanadas came out piping hot, as they are made fresh.  They were average size, flavor was decent, but they were oozing with grease, far more than a well made empanada should have.

The atmosphere was nothing special, nor was the service, but in this type of local, you can´t expect them to be good.  Cumen Cumen is mainly a take-out spot, but at $3 pesos for an empanada (upper end price for empanadas) I will certainly be going somewhere else the next time I have an empanada craving.