Best in Kyiv

Best samosa: Himalaya

Vegging out is an worthy pastime when it's with samosas
(Post photo by Viktor Suvorov)

According to Webster’s, a samosa is, “a small pastry turnover of Indian origin filled with a spicy meat or vegetable mixture as of potatoes and peas.”

Whatever. The point is that samosas make for one heck of an good appetizer – with just the kind of kick the Best of Team requires after a solid week of lunching on salo and pickles at our far?less?exotic stolovaya.

Moreover, done right, the samosa is a virtual meal in itself. A cornucopia of ingredients, like hot chilies, cauliflower, ginger, mango, coriander, curry, chick peas and rice, the samosa is vegetarian heaven on Earth, although we find that the chicken and even the beef varieties go down well when we are hit by a carnivorous craving.

That said, there are many variations on the theme, as we discovered when we set out to determine just which rendition deserves the coveted title of Kyiv’s Best Samosa.

Not the best tasting but surely the cheapest samosa comes from a surprise contender – a small bread kiosk in the Respublikansky Stadium metro station. At Hr 2 a pop, these samosas are a little on the greasy side, but they are zesty and substantial enough to provide the perfect pick?up on the subway ride home. They’re also overly popular, however, and even the line?cutting members of the Best Of team sometimes come up empty handed when stocks run low at the end of the week. The kiosk also stocks what must be Ukrainian variations on the theme – desert samosas. Try one with apple filling or, if you’re feeling experimental, oranges and cheese. They’re interesting but no substitute for the real thing.

Of course the best place to find a good samosa is in an Indian restaurant.

Taj serves up what amounts to a quantity?versus?quality samosa. For Hr 12, the team got four decent?sized samosas but found them on the crusty side, heavy on the potatoes and lacking a wider variety of vegetables. The accompanying sauce was reminiscent of simple tomato juice.

We found a far better variant at Ishans Rashoi on Druzhby Narodiv. A two?piece portion of their vegetable samosas goes for Hr 10, and the chicken samosas are only slightly more expensive at Hr 15. The vegetarian version was a sight to behold, an eye?pleasing mixture of toasty brown pastry packed with a combination of bright greens and yellows in the form of curried potatoes, mashed vegetables and peas. The accompanying mustard?based sauce was tasty, but not quite as spicy as we like.

And in the end, sauce was the determining factor in naming Himalaya’s samosa Kyiv’s best. Not drastically different in themselves from Ishans Rashoi’s version – and with the same fragrant taste and ability to heat up one’s mouth to a pleasingly reach?for?the?water degree – Himalaya’s samosas (two pieces for Hr 12.25) are served with a couple of incredible sauces. Team members dove right into the mint sauce and in particular the hot pepper?relish with avocado and lemon – the latter being almost dangerously hot but just perfect in small doses.

The Best of Team is, after all, comprised of refined individuals. They know that not only is variety the spice of life, but that spicy samosas lend variety to life in Kyiv.

HIMALAYA
23 Khreshchatyk, tel: 462-0437.
Open noon till last customer.