Empanada Ecstasy

And after several painful hours of horn tooting, ego tripping and fluttering around, CCPCJ’s 2^nd committee meeting came to our dinner break.

Earlier, I had tried to eat at the Argentinian restaurant in Restaurant Row, but they were closed. Now was my chance. I darted off towards the Chimichurry Grill to claim my empanadas. Being that it was 5:36, there was nobody else in the restaurant, but I was actually glad about that because it meant that I was going to practice more Spanish. The waiter gave me the “what’s a lovely young woman like you doing eating dinner alone!?” look and really tried to get me to order some wine, but I could tell that he was going to have to card me and I didn’t want to go through that awkwardness of acting like, oh, shit, I forgot you have to be twenty one to order alcohol. I ordered 1 beef and 1 chicken empanada. In the mean time while waiting for my food, I mustered up that sassy, but kind of nervous Nikita to ask ¿De dónde eres? Ecuador (the owner is Argentinian). Ah! More South Americans, which I love because in addition to going to Argentina this February, South American Spanish is just easier to stand because they speak more clearly and I feel like they are more patient than Spaniards are. He asked me where I was from and how long I had studied Spanish—he said he was impressed because he expected Spanish to be the last thing to be coming out of my mouth (yeah, white girls can speak Spanish sometimes…). Then we talked about his family, traveling and food. And as we breached the subject of food, mine arrived. The empanadas were crispy golden brown filled with some top quality meats and served with the spicy and flavorful chimichurry sauce, along with a green sauce that I think I missed the name of. A different waiter came back to talk to me and he said he didn’t believe the other guy that I was out there alone speaking Spanish. So we shot the bull too and chatted until other dinner guests started arriving. Leaving with a “mucho gusto” and a full tummy, I made my way back to the hotel forgetting why I was hating life just an hour ago. Again, speaking Spanish fills me with this happiness that is only replicable when I’m flirting with someone. Even the most basic phrases in English are suddenly transformed into something interesting and dimensional when they’re spoken in Spanish. Plus it’s challenging, exciting and out of my comfort zone because I’m not fluent yet…but I can’t wait to be, because I think that’s only going to magnify the effect. Plus, have you tried an empanada??? It’s meaty love in a doughy pocket.

Initially, I was turned off by New York, but once I started discovering more and more dimensions of it and how culturally diverse it is here, I fell in love with it. I could be fluent in Spanish just by eating out once or twice a week! Outside of Spanish, you can hear just about every other language floating around the streets, and it only reaffirmed my desire to live in that world. Not necessarily New York City, but places that take you outside your comfort and cultural zones. Being from Idaho…the streets of NYC are like taking international ecstasy while staying right here in the U.S.

But all my daydreams of traveling the world, speaking Spanish and eating yummy food exited my mind as soon as I walked back into the committee meeting room. Nikita died.