Indian Street Snack

You may think of the samosa as a humble street snack but it is much, much more than that.

It is an historic artefact - as well as delectable evidence that there is nothing new about the process of globalisation
Bite into a samosa
and the notion that identity is defined by the boundaries of a nation state should shatter like the deep-fried crust.
These days it is considered a quintessentially Indian delicacy, but its history is far more complex and cosmopolitan than that.
Savour the sensation as your teeth sink into the soft, yielding centre. Let the flavours flow into your mouth.
What you are tasting is the story of India itself - the product of the fluid forces of the great migrations and interactions that shaped this country.
The samosa's origins actually lie thousands of miles away in the ancient empires that rose up in the Iranian plateau at the dawn of civilization itself.
We don't know for certain when the first cooks shaped pastry into the now-familiar triangular shape but we do know that the origins of the name are Persian - "sanbosag".
The samosa is first mentioned in literature by the Persian historian Abul-Fazl Beyhaqi, writing in the 11th Century.
He describes a dainty delicacy, served as a snack in the great courts of the mighty Ghaznavid empire. The fine pastry was filled with minced meats, nuts and dried fruit and then fried till the pastry was crisp.
But the samosa was to be transformed as it followed the epic journey made by successive waves of migrants into India.
It was brought to India along the route the Aryans had taken more than 2,000 years earlier - through Central Asia and then over the great mountains in what is now Afghanistan, before descending down into the fertile plains of the great rivers of India.