Samosa Review: Village Video

Origin: Village Video, 134 Cardigan Road
Price: 50p
Storage: nice covered presentation dish on the counter
Heat: cold


Now here is an interesting one. The primary problems with this samosa are obvious. Firstly, it's considerably smaller than most of the samosas available, and it's very expensive for such a small portion. While 50p per samosa might be acceptable for late night takeaway samosas, paying so much for a cold samosa from a cornershop is more than a little upsetting. However, this problem is slightly alleviated by the fact that the shopkeeper threw in a free (that's totally free) onion-bhaji-type-thing with the purchase of two samosas. I doubt that this is standard practice with all customers, but it is worth baring in mind that you might get some freebies when you go here.
Moving on to look at the samosa itself, we find a very different taste to most of the other samosas in Hyde Park. The taste isn't very hot at all, much more 'spicey' and 'oriental'. I could taste a certain amount of ginger and other typically East Asian spices, which placed the overall flavour closer to that of a spring roll than a 'conventional' samosa. This is by no means a bad thing, but certainly unusual. The range of vegetables was very good, and the pastry was excellent, but perhaps slightly too crisp and greasy (again, like a spring roll).
Overall then, this is basically a good, if un-conventional, samosa, spoiled by a high price. That and the fact that it's gone in three or four mouthfuls. A good snack if you're feeling deep-pocketed, but not something to make a habit out of.

Taste: 7/10
Value: 3/10
Overall: ★ ★

Samosa Review: Cornershop - Cardigan Road/Mayville Avenue

Origin: Cornershop - Cardigan Road/Mayville Avenue
Price: 30p
Storage: plastic packing crate on the counter
Heat: cold

Here we have what would potentially be an excellent samosa hamstrung by two major shortcomings. The taste itself is good, but definitely on the spicey side, and the taste of chilli almost overpowers all the other sipces. Of course, this might be exactly what some people are looking for in their samosa, but for those used to more delicate flavours might be a bit shocked. However, this tastiness is overcome by the main problems of this samosa: insufficient range in vegetables, and thick, stodgy pastry. The vegetables consisted of a few peas and some chunks of potato, and a lot of indeterminable vegetable mush. And mush doesn't make a good samosa. The consistency was generally unsatisfying, and this problem was exacerbated by thick, stuff and chewy pastry, that was over-done on the outside and still uncooked on the inside.
Despite these shortcomings, the healthy size and reasonable price of this samosa would make it a perfectly acceptable choice as a lunchtime snack, but the poor vegetable-to-pastry is a fundamental flaw in this samosa, and prevents it from being among the better samosas in Hyde Park.


Taste: 5/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: ★ ★ (and a half)

Dananananakroyd T-Shirt

spotted: Malcolm's T-Shirt, in the Brudenell Social Club

Samosa Review: Maumoniat International Supermarket

Origin: Maumoniat International Supermarket, 35-43 Brudenell Grove
Price: 40p
Storage: greasy cardboard box behind the counter
Heat: luke warm

Taste-wise, this samosa is definitely one of the best. The range of vegetables is very good, the spices are tasty but not overpowering. I suspect that many of the other samosas in Hyde Park just have a paste of spices hastily thrown in at the end, but with this samosa you can really tell that the spices have been well cooked to give a fuller flavour. The size is not the best, perhaps slightly below average, but they're quite chunky so one will easily suffice for a quick lunch, and three will definitely be excessive. My main gripe about the taste would be the casing, which has been fried slightly too long, leaving it greasy and eliminating the taste of the pastry itself. The other problem is, of course, the price. At 40p (nearly double the cheaper alternatives) this samosa is definitely at the more expensive end of the spectrum, but this is relfected in the fact that you are paying for a quality product. If I was to sum up Maumoniat samosas in one word, it would be'classy'. This is the kind of samosa you buy for a girl (or boy) you're trying to impress, but maybe not for an everyday lunch.

A final word of warning: in the past, I've often found that Maumoniat run out of samosas quickly in the day, so if you're leaving it until you return home from work or university to buy your samosa, you may be dissapointed.

Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★

Mosaic

spotted: in York

Book

spotted: on the spine of a book in Oxfam

Chocolate

spotted: Glasgow