Empanadas @ The Twins Flavour
60 Dale St, Liverpool, L2 5ST
Except for a handful of Brazilian rodizios, you don’t have many options when it comes to South American restaurants in the city and its suburbs. But who needs options when you’ve got somewhere that does it as well as The Twins Flavour.
Opened just a few months ago on Dale Street — in the shadow of the Vernon Arms where Derek Hatton and Militant Tendency unofficially ran the city in the mid-80s — this tiny Colombian restaurant is owned by sisters Alejandra and Isabel.
The menu consists largely of dishes from Colombia but also features some from neighbouring countries, like Brazilian Quipes (croquettes of beef and bulgar wheat) and Venezuelan-style Arepas (corn pocket sandwiches filled with chorizo and vegetables).
The Colombian plates include Maduro Aborrajado (white cheese in sweet potato and fried in a cornmeal batter) and Chicharron con yuca o plantano (fried belly pork with cassava and plantain). Almost everything is deep-fried, lots of it is stuffed with cheese and all the meat is marbled and layered with fat — perfect. Especially when washed down with a cold brown bottle of Club Colombia beer.
Something a little lighter, if still deep-fried, are the empanadas. These palm sized corn pasties — filled with either sweet, tender beef brisket or shredded chicken and cubed potatoes — are addictively delicious. Following the advice of your hosts, take a bite and add a small spoonful of the sharp, thin, chilli sauce into the pastry.
Perfectly accompanied with a bottle of Colombiana, the national soft drink of Colombia which tastes like cream soda mixed with Irn Bru. Transcendental.
