The Long Wait for Authentic Samosas: Exploring the wait time & taste for this Indian dish in Seattle
"Can't we just buy the frozen ones?" asked my kids with a perplexed look.
My wife and I looked at each other and shook our heads unanimously, "NO." We both said in unison: "The store-bought ones don't taste as good."
To me, there is no better feeling than getting some fresh, hot and crispy samosas. Once I grab them and dip them in my favorite chutneys, I know everything is going to be alright for the day. Every time I would take a bite of the store bought samosas, I knew something was missing. For real tasters, unfortunately, after moving to Seattle we came across only bland and frozen samosas from grocery marts or restaurant cooked samosas with average taste and bland chutneys. Either it was the phyllo dough crust or the oil smell that didn't work for me. Authentic samosas can take hours to make since there are so many intricate steps to building them and you need the perfect balance of taste authentic ingredients to grind up a chutney to die for.
After a long search and tasting so many bland and soul-less samosas my wife- Leena and I finally decided to take upon ourselves the herculean task of making samosas at home. So one fine Sunday we woke up, put our chef hats on and started our journey to some scrumptious home-made Samosas. Leena being the head chef, summoned the perfection of naturally and locally sourced ingredients. We spent almost half the day prepping and a couple of hours folding and filling perfectly tight pockets of happiness. Our kids helped us out with the filling while Leena started frying the ones already folded.
What came after was a delicious and heartwarming surprise. Childhood memories of my favorite snack came rushing back on the very first crackling bite. I felt I was back on the street near my home where "garam" warm fresh samosas are available everyday. The taste was beyond my imagination and our kids just kept asking for more! We bowed down to our head chef as we filled our mouths with more and more of these yummy treats!
It slowly became a Sunday ritual to put our chef hats on and go to Samosa town. As we dived deeper and deeper into our love for samosas, Leena started trying out different fillings and samosa folding styles. Each and every flavor she made was a big hit not just in our family but even our friends, colleagues and neighbors couldn't get enough of it! What was most surprising was that even our American friends absolutely loved it. Each one of them emphasized on the fact how they were unlike any other samosas or chutney they have ever eaten and they wouldn't mind adding them to their snacking routine.
People even started giving us orders and slowly and steadily we created a whole community around our Sunday Samosa Ritual. Everyone used to get really excited all week long, waiting patiently for their Sunday treats.
We realized how we have slowly changed the image of samosas, one smile at a time. Coming from India it meant the world to us, how people from all races and regions really appreciated our most beloved Indian snack. This is how Seattle Samosa was born. With a little push from friends and family, we shifted out from our hot and messy kitchen to a professionally certified cloud kitchen and started with operating on weekends only. My wife and I both have our own jobs in the corporate world but our love for Samosa encourages us to strive harder and bring Seattle the most Authentic, Fresh and Pure Samosas.