Manny's Cafe and Bakery

All hail the empanada, that self-contained food stuff so popular in Latin cafes, bodegas, convenience stores, and bakeries. Every country has its own interpretation of the pocket-sized meals: Colombia offers a crisp, fried corn shell stuffed with rice and chicken or beef and potatoes. Argentinian empanadas - like the kind produced daily at Manny's Bakery - are like little gaucho pies filled with chunked chicken or spinach with cheese. This West Broward bakery is frequented by Latino families, especially around lunchtime. That's when it makes South American-style "butifarra" sandwiches from the crusty, flaky bread it bakes, along with big tamales wrapped in banana leaves. You can get a big sandwich and a drink for under $8. The empanadas, though, are hard to pass up. Under $2 a pop, these pies sport a crust that's sweet, buttery, and dense, with a dusting of flour on the bottom and a glossy egg-wash glaze on top. Manny's gives these an Argentine twist by cubing white-meat chicken and bathing it in guiso, a tomato-heavy sauce flecked with cilantro. Manny's is planning to move soon (the new location yet unknown, but the owners plan to stay in Coral Springs). Be sure to visit before they make the haul.