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Indianapolis Star

Indy 500 concession item from westside Argentinian spot is best thing I ate in Indy this week

We're mere hours from the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500, where 33 of the world's fastest drivers will battle for IndyCar immortality while roughly 350,000 other people consume a lot of grilled meat and light beer. If you plan to be among the sold-out crowd at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, sooner or later you'll need to refuel. The IMS will be full of strong snacking options, including: Fried stadium flavor meets centuries-old culinary technique in the empanada, which you can purchase from Che Chori near Turn 1 at this year's Indy 500 and year-round from its drive-through restaurant just east of Speedway. Unable (and frankly, somewhat unwilling) to limit myself to one variety of empanada, I sampled multiple for this week's INdulge. Know before you go: IMS, Aramark unveil new concession items for 2025 Indy 500. As you may already know, an empanada is a savory turnover-like pastry with likely origins in 7th century Galicia (the northwest region of Spain) and Portugal. The term empanada comes from the Spanish verb empanar, which essentially means to envelop in bread. Empanadas can be baked or fried and come with an impressive variety of fillings. Those at Che Chori ($4 each) look totally textbook: palm-sized half-moons with honey-colored crimped edges and hundreds of little surface bubbles where steam strained against the puff pastry. That pastry vanishes between your teeth with an almost cartoonish chomp, revealing a densely packed jumble of flavors depending on what's inside. What's inside ranges from traditional to whatever word you would use to describe Che Chori's bacon cheeseburger empanada. But the staple stuffing I chose, which you can expect to find at the 500, is Argentine chorizo. When I've spoken previously with Che Chori owner Marcos Perera, who grew up in Argentina, he's talked about chorizo like a cinephile discussing Stanley Kubrick's filmography — deeply reverent and mildly obsessive. The restaurateur cares deeply about spiced sausage (always great to be among like-minded people) and that is evident in his chorizo empanada. It's a hyper-palatable savory mash of sausage, onions and cheese, exactly what you're looking for in a Hot Pocket-adjacent dish. Elsewhere in Speedway This big, orange Mexican sandwich is the best thing I ate in Indy this week Squash and pumpkin empanadas aren't unheard of in Mexico and South America, but they aren't ubiquitous here in the United States. Che Chori's butternut squash empanada features a hearty whiff of rosemary, creating a Christmas dinner flavor profile that I never realized could come from a deep fryer. Perhaps Che Chori's most traditional option is the ground beef empanada with egg and olives, ingredients commonly found in the empanadas of the Tucumán and La Rioja Provinces. The small dose of olives in Che Chori's beef empanada nicely deepens its flavor with an extra hit of salt and fat. It's not a dirty martini by any stretch, but the funk is there. The ground beef variety was probably my favorite of the bunch, though that might just be because they reminded me of my first magical encounter with empanadas. I was nine years old on a trip to visit my father's cousin in Kansas City, where said cousin's Latin American friend showed up at his house with multiple Tupperware containers full of ground beef and ham and cheese empanadas. Now, my memory of that vacation is a little hazy, but I'd guess I ate somewhere in the ballpark of 38 cold empanadas in the span of three days — a high from which I've never fully recovered. I encourage you to give one of Che Chori's renditions a try on race day. Sure, there will be far more important things unfolding on the oval, but that's no reason to deprive yourself of a decent lunch. Whether in pursuit of the Borg-Warner trophy or the childlike rush of some good empanadas, we're all chasing something. What: Empanadas, $4 each Where: Che Chori, concession stand 11 at Turn 1 on race day, year-round at 3124 W. 16th St., (317) 737-2012,