Popular Snack in India Samosa recently become an American

Samosa, a traditional Indian food, has recently become Americanized. In the run-up to Halloween, when Jack-o'-Lanterns are made from pumpkins, Trader Joe's, a US-wide grocery company, just introduced samosas packed with pumpkin, which have suddenly become a national craze. Everything from coffee to ice cream to waffles, pies, and breakfast cereals include pumpkins or has them added to it. Many of these concoctions are expressly introduced around this time for only this season, and they quickly run out of stock.

The "Spicy Pumpkin Samosa" from Trader Joe's will suffer the same fate. Some Indians and Americans of Indian heritage have reacted with predicted outrage to the extreme westernisation of Indian cuisine "Trader Joe's, please. Only No ", one of them said. Similar posts criticising Trader Joe's for this culinary offence have been widely shared on social media. Some people were more hospitable and less antagonistic. According to Chintan Pandya, chef and cofounder of Adda and Dhamaka, two of the hottest Indian restaurants in New York City, "Trader Joe's spicy pumpkin samosa is a testimonial that it is accepted around the world as a global meal and no longer a regional or ethnic dish."

"It's a significant improvement for the samosa as a dish and will widen the market for regional Indian cuisine. We can have Turkey Tikka in the Trader Joe's aisle if it works, we just hope." Thanksgiving, a national holiday in America, is not complete without turkey. The traditional cuisine is a whole turkey that has been ceremoniously sliced up and served with stuffing, cranberry sauce, turkey gravy, potatoes, and pumpkin pie after roasting for hours in the oven.

Turkey Tikka should have been heard at Trader Joe's if anyone had heard Pandya. Westerners are becoming more and more fond of chicken tikka, or its British cousin chicken tikka masala. Americans of Indian heritage recollect a period when they were unable to find samosas anyplace in the nation. If the ingredients were available, which was also uncommon at the time, the majority of them learned to make them at home. Indian families recall travelling long distances for groceries for Indian cooking.

Ashok Bajaj, who immigrated to the US 33 years ago and went on to become a well-known restaurateur in Washington, D.C., the centre of global power, recalls that samosas weren't readily accessible at the time. These days, you can't get enough of the samosas served in his Indian eateries, including Bindas, Rasika, and Bombay Club, which is located a block from the White House. Samosa is now widely available and growing in popularity among consumers who are not of Indian heritage.

Trader Joe's declined to comment when asked why it decided to sell pumpkin-stuffed samosas, but it is not unfamiliar with other traditional Indian foods that are strictly Indian in both form and content, such as Lamb Vindaloo, chickpeas and rice, chicken tikka, naans, and rotis. It seems that the pumpkin Samosa is its first attempt to Americanize that most popular Indian delicacy. Bajaj declared, "As long as its quality is decent, it's good." Bajaj is no stranger to experimenting with Indian food; his restaurants are likely the first to have served golgappas with guacamole, which are now a staple of hors d'oeuvres at Indian-themed events. They were also the first to serve bite-sized pieces of nan, which are occasionally served with drinks, mostly wine.

(source : IANS)