Indians eat a mind-boggling array of street food.
They nosh on pakoras, or vegetable fritters; jalebis, which are deep-fried coils of fermented batter dunked in sugar syrup; and papdi chaat, a tart and spicy mélange of crunchy fried dough, yogurt and spices — to name just a few. The snacks, often washed down with chai, are ubiquitous, filling and relatively cheap.
But the king of street food — and one of India’s most famous culinary exports — is the samosa. The deep-fried, plump and triangular piece of flaky dough has crisp edges, encasing a heavily spiced potato stuffing. Usually served with tangy and sweet condiments, they cost as little as 15 cents at food carts or stalls throughout the country.
So, when a recent government advisory put samosas — along with other deep-fried Indian snacks and Western foods such as burgers and French fries — on a list of things that should be eaten in moderation because of their high oil and sugar content, there was an unsurprising outcry. Social media erupted with memes, and Indian media chimed in to say the country’s most iconic bites were under attack.
A love of the samosa is “ingrained in us,” said Rana Safvi, a cultural historian, who said it served as both street food and comfort food. If the government had targeted only burgers or pizza, people wouldn’t have cared, she said. “Samosa is something that is too close to them.”
Some news outlets fueled the backlash by likening the directive to health warnings on cigarettes.
The actual advisory was considerably milder than that. India’s health ministry on June 21 sent out a notice to all government ministries requesting that they put up posters in public spaces, such as office cafeterias and meeting rooms, showing the oil and sugar levels in certain foods. In the sample posters, the much-loved samosa was first on the high-fat list. (Jalebis were lower down on the high-sugar poster.)
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