EHernandez

The best sessions were the plenary sessions that took place during breakfast, my favorite being Mas Masumoto´s session on Friday. The other sessions included great speaker-chefs such as Dan Barber, Charlie Trotter, Fergus Anderson, Traci des Jardins and Raymond Blanc from Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons in Oxford, England. Seattle was a great city and thank you to all the volunteers and Host committee for a wonderful conference. I ate at some great restaurants including Earth & Ocean, El Gaucho, The Pink Door, Elliott´s, but my favorite was a peruvian place in Kirkland called Mixtura. They have wonderul food and the chef is an angel.

Hi Robyn, How about fresh figs, bocconcini and prosciutto, splashed with a good olive oil and balsamic vinegar... It's delicious!

The most interesting "empanadas" I saw in Venezuela..they are called "Empanadas de Pabellón"... Pabellón is the national dish that consists of shredded meat with a sauce (skirt steak), rice, beans, white cheese and sweet plantains. Empanadas de Pabellón are made with the mashed plantains as a dough to encase all the rest (meat, rice, beans, cheese) as a filling. The empanada is then given the crescent shape and fried. It is really good. In the beaches in Venezuela they also have the Empanadas de Cazón. Cazón means shark. Shark Empanadas. Maybe someone from Venezuela can gives us the recipes?

Yes, Cubans do have their version of empanadas made with ground beef, onions, raisins and sherry wine, they are usually fried but I have seen baked versions too which are called empanadas de Castilla. The most famous are the Empanadas de Guayaba (Guava) sometimes made with cream cheese too, encased in a puff pastry type dough. In Panama empanadas are very common, they are made with yellow corn masa and filled with beef, cheese or chicken, and fried. Then they are also lots of different types of baked empanadas made with a short crust dough and stuffed with savory or sweet fillings. The fried version is also prepared, with a dough made with flour, lard and water. I must add that the French also have empanadas - they call them "chaussons" and they are made with puff pastry and filled with fruit more often apples (chaussons aux pommes) and I have also seen them with a foie gras and truffles. The Chinese have the wo-tips or pot stickers which are their asian version of empanadas.