Empanadas provide me with comfort. I would have a tough time calling them comfort food, as I never turn to them for comfort at home. But, since that term is reserved for foods which you had a lot in your childhood and bring back memories of your caring mother, perhaps there is another connection. They have a resemblance to mccains pizza pockets. Pizza pockets, their disturbingly perfect round shape and paradoxical lack of seams, were a hallmark of my childhood. I think they were a treat to break up my monotonous bean and cheese burrito after-school snack days.
Empanadas do have seams, they must therefore have been handcrafted. They are so cheap, even here in Santiago de Chile, where they typically retail for the equivalent of 1CAD (I bought 2 today at the supermarket for only $750, or 1.50CAD). So while most things are exceedingly expensive here (or at least the same as in Canada), I can eat for $3 a day on empanadas. There is a thin veneer of some type of meat and onion, which make them sweet. All of my Chilean empanadas so far have had a single olive inside, unpitted. So, in a sense, the empanada itself has a pit. In proximity to the pit there is typically a whole egg, apparently added already hardboiled. Sometimes the egg is scrambled, either way it makes for a nutritious surprise part way through.
The music has returned to acceptable status and there is no longer any clashing. I should get back to work! I just bought myself a 6:30am flight tomorrow morning to Antofagasta...