Empanadas 168 Amory St., Manchester 836-5008; www.MiEmpanadas.com Serving: Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Style: Spanish/Mexican Prices: $2.25-$5.95 Scoring: Our Gourmet and The Dining Companion each grade a restaurant in five categories, for a combined total score of up to 100 points. Visit the Dining section of NewHampshire.com to read previous Our Gourmet reviews listed by town.

Empanadas, in business for about a month, offers home-made empanadas — a staple of Latin American and Spanish cooking — at low prices. It’s a great, low-cost alternative to fast food. This week we focused on Empanadas’ empanadas.

Our Gourmet: Call it the original hot pocket. Empanadas are wildly popular in Latin American and Spain, but have been slow to find their way to New Hampshire.

An empanada is simply this: a round pastry filled with meat, vegetables or fruit, then folded in half and crimped around the edges. The name “empanada” comes from the Spanish verb empanar, which means to wrap in bread. The dough is a mix of flour, egg, oil, lard or shortening, and a liquid. The dough is kneaded, rolled out to size, filled as desired, then baked or fried. That’s it. It’s simple, it’s filling and the smaller ones are easy to eat with one hand. It’s the ultimate convenience food.

While empanadas are widely thought to have originated in Spain, some think their roots may lie with the Moors who occupied Spain for hundreds of years. However, many cultures have their own version of the dish, such as the calzone and the pierogi.

The dish can be found in most Latin American countries, which each have their own localized version. In Argentina, where the empanada is possibly most popular, each region has its own version and the northern province of Tucuman is the home of the National Empanada Festival.

But empanadas aren’t just for lunch or dinner: Countries such as Mexico have breakfast and dessert empanadas, filled with fruit, pumpkin, sweet potato or cream. Uruguayan empanadas may be filled with dulce de leche, or “sweet milk” which is caramel flavored.

So there you have the background of the empanada. On to the main course:

TDC: Funny how some old things become new things. To a new generation of kids out there, “Hot Pockets” are easy to eat and unique, but this idea of an easy pocket of goodness has been around for centuries. Even in Manchester, these pastries have been filled and carried by the French, Irish, Polish and many other mill workers as their worktime meal, being easy to carry, self contained, and a little touch of home. What better to have for that quick moment they were allowed for lunch or supper?

OG: TDC went to Empanadas recently and got a variety of empanadas ($2 each; dinners with rice and beans, $5.25-5.95). We spread them out over the table and dug in. There were beef, chicken, seafood and vegetable as well as apple and cherry.

The dough was nicely done, slightly flaky and not too heavy. My favorite fillings were the chicken and beef; the chicken was moist and flavorful and the beef was just slightly spicy. The seafood was a sort of Newburg that seemed to feature artificial crab, which is just not my thing.

Of the dessert empanadas, I would have guessed cherry would be my favorite, but I preferred the cinnamon apple tart. It was just sweet enough and more flavorful than the cherry.

TDC: I also liked the flaky and buttery dough of the pastry. The fillings were a little less seasoned then I expected for a Mexican/Spanish establishment. The chicken has good-sizes pieces of chicken, the beef was flavorful; the seafood filling tasted a bit like a seafood Newburg, but was tasty enough.

OG: There are plenty of other things to try at empanadas: there are tacos, burritos, quesadillas, fajitas, nachos and enchiladas — all traditional Mexican fare. There are also pasteles, a Puerto Rican dish that is similar to the empanada or a tamale.

TDC: Also on Empanadas’ menu is paella, a Spanish specialty of saffron rice with chicken, seafood, pork, chorizo and vegetables. I have had a number of paellas, from the best of Spanish restaurants to the quick takeouts, and I have to say Empanadas’ version was very good. ($5.95). In a world of Big Macs and sub sandwiches, this is a great lunch deal at this price. This is a Friday special, and it is worth the drive.

OG: The key word here is value. Nothing on the menu is over $5.95, an outstanding price for good food that’s better for you than most take-out.

TDC: OG and I will occasionally do these reviews on small local eateries to highlight alternatives to the standard fare. These little places are owned by locals trying to survive — as we all are in this tough economy. If you know of other small, sole-proprietor lunch spots, tell us about them. We might just pop in and have a bite …

Do you have a favorite restaurant that you'd like to see reviewed? Drop us a line at gourmet@unionleader.com.