A deep-fried taste of Panama in Warner Robbins, Georgia, at My Grandma's Empanadas

RIKKI WAITE, MY GRANDMA’S EMPANADAS | WARNER ROBBINS, GEORGIA

In Warner Robbins, Georgia, there is a “luncheria” that serves handmade Panamanian empanadas that are fried in Oliver Farm’s sunflower oil. Rikki Waite makes her dough every day by hand, her mother on one end of the counter, and Rikki perched at the other.

Rikki met Clay when they both were vendors at the International City Farmers’ Market, where market master Jodi Daley saw that they could benefit each other and suggested that Rikki use Clay’s oils when frying up her perfectly crispy empanadas. Clay loves to tell the story of how he didn’t even know what an empanada was when he met Rikki. Well, he does now, and so do all of her ravenous customers.