Ethiopian Sambussa -- healthy baked cousins of samosas with phyllo dough!
Don't you find it very interesting how two objects in two vastly different cultures still have such similar names! Origin of the words or its etymology as its called has always fascinated me. Particularly for words that were derived centuries ago when the means of sharing/communication about cuisines, spices and techniques was so limited (not like today where one can post a new ingredient and the rest of the world gets to know about it right then and there, thanks to the ever-spreading world-wide web!) So when I visited a local Ethiopian restaurant a year or so ago and saw an appetizer named ' Sambussa ' with the description of 'thin dough shell stuffed with lentils and spices" I was pretty sure that this was a variation of Indian samosas. A quick peek at wiki told me that the name samosa derives from the Persian name ' sanbosag ' (having to do something with the crescent shape apparently) and from their many cultures have their ow…
Ethiopian Sambussa -- healthy baked cousins of samosas with phyllo dough!
Don't you find it very interesting how two objects in two vastly different cultures still have such similar names! Origin of the words or its etymology as its called has always fascinated me. Particularly for words that were derived centuries ago when the means of sharing/communication about cuisines, spices and techniques was so limited (not like today where one can post a new ingredient and the rest of the world gets to know about it right then and there, thanks to the ever-spreading world-wide web!) So when I visited a local Ethiopian restaurant a year or so ago and saw an appetizer named ' Sambussa ' with the description of 'thin dough shell stuffed with lentils and spices" I was pretty sure that this was a variation of Indian samosas. A quick peek at wiki told me that the name samosa derives from the Persian name ' sanbosag ' (having to do something with the crescent shape apparently) and from their many cultures have their ow…