Editor’s Note: The views expressed here are those of the author’s and don’t necessarily represent or reflect the views of MangoBaaz.
By: Nuha Saad
Who doesn’t love a good samosa? Especially when the weather’s a little chilly (or rainy) and you’re feeling a little lazy, samosas are the best thing to fill your sad sack of a tummy with. That crispy, flaky crust filled with the chunky aaloo masala all dipped in some chatpati chutney, or maybe you’re the ketchup kinda person.
Now, imagine if someone would flip the script and have samosas be filled with anything but the regular old aaloo. Yes, that. That expression is exactly how it played out with Islamabadis on the internet. So this restaurant, Des Pardes, in F-10 Markaz, Islamabad, recently came out with two lines of creatively filled samosas; savory and sweet.
The savory samosas are possibly the first of their kind, in Islamabad at least. There’s the pizza, the chicken supreme, the shawarma, and the chicken parmesan samosa flavors. The sweet ones are the Nutella samosa, the Nutella & nuts samosa, the apple pie samosa, and the s’mores samosa.
When the restaurant revealed these items on their Facebook page, some people just couldn’t deal with the attempt at “redefining samosas”.
This man seems to think it wasn’t very creative
Want to invent something out of the box?
How about Nutella samosa and Shawerma samosa ??#LeaveItToThePakistanis
— Sameed Khalid (@Sam_k007) December 21, 2016
While this doctor sahab just couldn’t stomach the thought
@am_nawazish Even the thought of Nutella in Samosa is nauseating for me, what to talk about trying it ?
— Dr.Khawar Randhawa (@Khawarrandhawa) December 21, 2016
This one’s done seen ‘bout everything
Whattup Dumbo reference.
Ye din dekhnay k leye zinda reh gae thi bus. NUTELLA SAMOSA? SERIOUSLY? pic.twitter.com/0jGQDt27LW
— Basanti (@PhaphayKuttni) December 5, 2016
And this one went into full on drama mode:
samosa hum sharminda hain, teray qaatil abhi zinda hain pic.twitter.com/MEcc3TDx1c
— Kamraan. (@heavymetalkop) December 5, 2016
While this one just doesn’t seem to care much for new food trends:
The fusion samosa is the new Nutella naan. Even Des Pardes F10 is serving them now.
— Imperial Marcher (@MavIncognito) December 6, 2016
All the hate against these “creative samosas” made the restaurant very sad at the zaalim zamana.
Some people were definitely open to trying new things, like this person who just like samosas
This frequent patron of the restaurant doesn’t mind trying them at least for old times’ sake.
These people had varying degrees of excitement about the samosas…
(hating on the fish-fillet is a tad bit unnecessary though…)
And this person lost all their chill, at the thought of the hot samosas
But this person’s all the Nutella hate was kinda sorta valid but not really
Nutella samosa WTH ? zehr mein bhi thora nutella dal kar mar jao.
— عائشہ (@Ishaawww) January 28, 2017
Me and my friends had been really excited to try these samosas. We all agreed to a samosa gorging session, but sadly, couldn’t make definite plans because you know how friends’ plans never really happen what with all the exams, and of course, transport logistics.
Luckily, I was actually sent the samosas for free by the restaurant, so that I could review them (yay mufta!). I tried 7 out of the 8 kinds and I honestly really liked them. I accidentally missed out on S’mores samosa, but I want s’more of all of them. And I’ll have you know, me and my hostel friends actually had them as a post-dinner snack, so we didn’t like them because we were hungry. We liked them because they were good.
The pizza samosa and shawarma samosa were true to their names, and really delicious (the only noticeable difference was the shawarma’s bread and the pizza’s crust being replaced with golden crunchy samosa casing). The chicken supreme (full of cheese and chicken) was a delight as well, but my personal favorite was the chicken parmesan. I bit into the samosa, and was surprised to find a large piece of boneless chicken, cooked to perfection, with cheese and some really good marinara sauce smothered on it.
The sweet samosas were great too. The Nutella samosa, I had already expected myself to like (and it lived up to my expectations and beyond), but I don’t always like nuts in desserts, nor am I a huge fan of apple pies, so I was wary of the other two. However, the filling of the Nutella & nuts samosa was really nicely balanced and reminded me of the Dairy Milk Fruit & Nut chocolate, a little bit. I was actually surprised to find myself enjoying the flavour of the apple pie samosa as well.
I had them packed and brought a long way and ate them microwaved after quite a while, so they’re probably even better, and crispier if you dine in, or eat them right after delivery. I was also impressed how they weren’t oily, which I think would’ve ruined some of the flavors.
To anyone who still thinks that Des Pardes has messed with the inherent idea of samosas, I really don’t think they have. Samosas are doughy-pastry with a filling that is deep fried. These samosas stay true to their origins, but offer more options, and are a fun, delicious way to mix things up a bit.
I sincerely think people should try these samosas out. They could be Islamabad’s new food trend, like Cronuts were to NYC.
About the Author: Nuha is a book-geek, a grammar-slammer and a mechanical engineer who blogs here.