Keema Lamb Samosa Stars

Brand: Morrisons

Cost: £2

Found at: Morrisons

Years ago, I somehow got a hold of a free audiobook copy of Ken Albala’s “Great Courses” lectures on the history of food. (Its long and will make you crave food wherever you go, but I recommend it.) I spent many a long commute thinking about Indian curries and Japanese seafood and Aztec chilies. And while I have forgotten nearly every useful fact it has to offer, I still savor the memory of that delicious, covetous feeling I got as I listened to the detailed descriptions of medieval, wine-braised duck.

However, one of the few facts that did manage to survive the subsequent purge of memory (brought on by Netflix binges and excessive unpaid overtime) was about the relationship between early cooks, meat, and sugar. Namely, the idea in the early periods that meat and sugar could go together. Now, I can’t be too judgemental – after all, not only do I come from a very specific and restrictive food culture, but plenty of the processed meats that I know and love are made with sugar – but the idea of sugared meats nevertheless makes me a little uneasy.

Which brings us to these Keema Lamb Samosa Stars. They are lamby. They are sweet. And I am not ok with it. Gone are the days where we need to show off our prestige to the other medieval lords with flagrant displays of sugared animal flesh. And gone too are the days when I will buy these samosas. It’s just too much for my fussy modern palate to handle.