There are few better descriptions of empanadas than the one Andre Nogales gives.
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He and wife Andrea Carvajal may just be experts on the topic as the couple behind La Empanada Bakehouse in Gungahlin, which make and sell these "pockets of love".
The bakehouse opened facing Gungahlin Place late last year after they created a following at markets and pop-up events across the capital since 2016. It was a following so large that the main driver for opening their cafe front was to have a bigger kitchen to cater to their market demand.
"The shop was a plus for us, so we decided to try to do not that super fancy restaurant seating but still have our empanadas as the main thing," Carvajal says.
"We didn't know that there was a big Latino community on this side of the city so it's good and people are also wanting to try something new.
"During COVID, for example, if you went into the delivery website you'd find Asian, Asian, burgers, pizza - everything is the same. And then people saw South American food so they thought they would give it a try and they're ordering food a couple of days a week from home, especially when they couldn't go out.
"Now they can come in and say 'We tried you, this is great so it was good."
Empanadas are a turnover style pastry filled with either savoury or sweet fillings. As Carvajal says, it's the South American version of the meat pie, and just like the Aussie pie, you can find them everywhere from service stations to high-end restaurants in South America.
La Empanada's offerings include a range of traditional South American dishes as empanada filling such as lomo saltado - a Peruvian dish with marinated sirloin strips, fried potatoes, capsicum, tomato and onion. They also have a traditional empanada de pino recipe from Chile which has beef, sultanas, black olives and sliced egg.
Some Australian flavours also make an appearance on the menu with spinach and cheese, and bacon and egg empanadas available. Meanwhile, those with a sweet tooth have options including chocolate, apple and dulce de leche, rhubarb and strawberries and guava and cheese.
"There's a lot of work behind our cooking," Carvajal says.
"Empanadas are a family gathering thing so the little kids are in charge of chopping the eggs, mum does the dough and then you get all of this family togetherness. Traditionally we have big families and that's where you start telling the stories and passing the recipes and things like that.
"Just the prepping, a lot of the recipes need a couple of hours of cooking. Andre loves it when we have people over because that's probably the only time when I cook traditional food at home."
Carvajal says they've had South American customers come in and are grateful that there is somewhere where they can buy empanadas, because "it's delicious food but there is a lot behind the cooking".
"It has also been interesting to see how many Australians who have travelled somewhere in South America or are planning to or have read about it so they come in and try that little piece of South America," Carvajal says.
"The ones who have travelled will be like 'That's exactly what we had' or we have dulce de leche and they're like 'We've missed this. We didn't know where to find it'. Canberra is still a city that doesn't have many South American people here so it has been good."
And for those who have never tried empanadas, Nogales says "if you don't try it, you don't really understand what's in the pocket of love".
"Ultimately the best thing I can tell people is what's the worst that can happen?" he says.
"You don't know what an empanada is and you try it and you don't like it - chances are you'll like it - but you can say that you've tried and empanada and off you go, you never come back. But if you don't try it, you'll never really know."