Boasting around our food and roasting other cultures for their low spice tolerance is probably our favorite pastime. But at times we forget that the food we take our pride in sometimes doesn’t even belong to us originally. Feel cheated and traumatized right? Yep, that’s what I felt too.
Below is the list of food items that we always thought were Indian but they aren’t:
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1. Momo – Tibet
My heart broke when I got to know this. Momo is comfort food for all of us Indians, but it doesn’t even belong to us. Our neighboring country, Nepal, brought it to us. It is believed that momos were brought to India by the Newar merchants during their trade process. It is still unclear and no one really knows the actual story but god bless those merchants.
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2. Samosa – Middle East
It is an original Middle eastern food. It had fillings of meat, nuts, and other delicious stuff. During the trade process, people used to carry those for their meals and we copied it. Heh.
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3. Gulab Jamuns – Persia
Just because it’s sweet and tastes, “Indians” doesn’t mean it’s ours. The original name for this sweet was Lomka and it belonged to Persia and the Mediterranean. Gulab Jamuns are a sweet delicacy that came from Persia and the Mediterranean. It was also known as Lokma.
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4. Tea – China
I’m ready to digest everything but the fact that tea is not an Indian thing originally. Because tea runs in our blood, we need it to carry out our basic functions throughout the day. Country’s favourite actually belongs to China. British did some good things while they were in India and cultivating tea was the best of them. Since then tea became a part of the culture, or maybe a part of us.
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5. Dal Rice – Nepal
We should all go and give something to Nepal because it is the home to our two very favorite foods to eat. Though dal rice might make us whiny, we cannot disagree that it does taste the best sometimes. Also, it was a staple food for the people of Nepal and we copied it, cause it’s delicious okay? Not our fault.
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6. Idli – Indonesia
Sorry dosa and idli lovers, you guys are kinda at fault too in this list. Idli is a very popular south Indian dish and sometimes even the very favorite breakfast for the people. But it is actually from Indonesia. And it came to India by the Arabs.
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7. Rajma – Mexico
I’ve seen my friends thrashing Mexican beans and the stuff they put into tacos saying they copied from India. But it might burst their bubble, that we actually copied their recipe, modified it into the food which makes us salivate every time we smell it. Oops. The food actually is from Mexico and Guatemala.
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8. Chicken Tikka Masala – Glasgow
Funny story: a customer complained about the chicken he was served that was very dry. That’s how chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow. Well, I wonder how many dishes I make by adding water to the leftovers from the previous night while heating it up.
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9. Shukto – Portugal
Yes, fellow Bengalis even I used to hold pride in shukto. Flexing my mom’s made tasty shukto has been my forte. But today I’m not okay, see it rhymed? Shukto is originally from Portugal where they steamed and added all that goodness to a good bowl of fresh vegetables and meats. And we as Bengalis modified giving it our twice making it taste even better.
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10. Naan – Persia
It reached India during the Mughal times and its origination is through Persian roots. Yaar, who was in charge of keeping the food records in the past?
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11. Vindaloo – Portugal
Okay, Portuguese people had some fancy name food this dish, okay, they called it, Carne de vinha d’alhos. I can’t even pronounce it with a straight face, but it didn’t really have potatoes in it. So we used potatoes and our brain to give it a fancy name too. Okay maybe not fancy but cute, okay?
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12. Jalebi – Middle East
Not Jalebi too yaar. It is a middle eastern dessert and it has a lot of fancy names to it. But the point to be noted is, it’s now ours, we don’t own jalebis. I’m not okay.
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13. Filter Coffee – Smuggled
Well, it is not known where it actually is from, but while returning from Mecca Baba Budan smuggled a few coffee beans. Then he cultivated that on the slopes of Chandragiri Hills in Kadur district in current Karnataka, which gave rise to coffee and its consumption.
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This was too overwhelming of information for me too.
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