It is no secret that Indian food is much loved across the globe. It comes in infinite varieties and comes with an intriguing history that has travelled to these foreign lands. Butter chicken and naan, or the naan bread as they like to call it has totally ravaged the western market in terms of food. There are a lot more dishes that have been fancy-fied too, like our haldi doodh turned into turmeric latte and the lonavala chikkis that we find everywhere go by nut brittle in the West.
On these lines, here are a few of our favourite food items that have totally different names abroad:
1. Samosa
Samosa is a crowd Favourite
While most people in the West are more or less familiar with samosa, since it is a very common appetiser in Indian restaurants, there are some who know it as a "potato-filled fried pastry". Samosa is also very similar to a dish named empanada in the States, thus many people even assume that both these dishes are close relatives. Apart from their shape, which totally gives away their differences, samosas and empanadas are both fried dough filled with potatoes, vegetables and sometimes even meat.
2. Pakoda
Delicious pakodas with chai is a heavenly combination on a rainy day, but if you want to order the same in the West, you might want to go for something called "Deep Fried fritters". They are even further divided into potato fritters, onion fritters and just vegetable fritters. These fritters are actually quite popular as junk food across the globe.
3. Chole Bhature
Chole Bhature is so perfect that even western countries love it
Every Indian's soul food, chole bhature actually goes by the name "chickpea curry with fried flatbreads." It is a very common main course option across Indian restaurant in foreign countries. The people themselves have even made quite a few renditions of our beloved chole in the form of chickpea curry without the additional spices.
4. Chaat
Chaat is much more common in the west than you'd assume. A lot of street vendors can be seen selling these "spicy potato snacks" around London. It does have a lot of variants across the country, but the base of boiled vegetables and spices remains the same.
5. Poha
Poha is a very common breakfast item
Planning on making poha abroad but could not find it anywhere? That's because it was busy being "Flaked rice" or "Flattened rice" in the grocery stores. Once you search by this name, you will definitely have better luck.
6. Aloo Parantha
Aloo Parantha literally translates to "potato bread" in the West, and that is how they address it. It is quite a popular dish in London and the USA and is usually served for breakfast as "spicy potato bread".
All our bhaturas, puris and naans may just be breads in foreign lands, but we love to see our beloved Indian food get so much love in the west. The classy twist on their names would surely be unrecognisable in India.