Safeway Chicken Tandoori Samosas

Rolling in to Safeway on my way to work today, I had a case of the frail hungries but I had no idea what I wanted to munch upon. I've never found the Safeway Deli zone, at least the one on 4th Street in downtown CdA, to be particularly thrilling. I won't get into details now (you can read my write up about the subject from a few years back here), but barring their fresh-made-on-the-spot sandwich situation (think Subway knock-off), I've found their selections to be blasé, overly corporate, and unappealing.

Still, when I'm hungry enough I have a look-see anyway, and today I found something there that threw me for a lit of a loop: "Nana's Kitchen Chicken Tandoori Samosas". I'd heard of the term Samosa before, but frankly, I had no idea exactly what I was looking at. (I later educated myself here). I asked the Deli Queen on duty if they were best eaten hot or cold and she gave me a blank stare for a moment before replying "uhh...both I guess". $4.99 was a bit of a high price point for grocery deli action, but I was feeling experimental and starvacious, so I threw it in my hand basket, filed through the check out line and headed for work.

I put the nuclear orangey-brown triangle up to my mouth and took a ginger little nip on the corner, not exactly sure what to expect. Wow, surprises are a kick, and this little odd pocket was substantially brimming with flavor right away. I'm putting it out there right now that this is the best Safeway deli item I've subjected myself to, miles beyond their dry bread/soggy tomato grab-and-go sandwiches or their bland-ass slimy-skin chicken parts.

I didn't exactly get the taste of tandoori chicken specifically, but a mish-mash of Indian cuisine flavors comes through in a way that's not overwhelming or uber spicy, but mellow, delicious, and kind of refreshing. Attempting to read the microscopic list of ingredients on the carton's sticker did me no good whatsoever. Honestly, it's never a good idea to get too deep into those things because even a plain Jane Safeway turkey-and-bread deli sandwich will list things like Pyrodoxine Hydrocloride among the ingredients, and that just ain't appetizing at all.

So I'm just guessing at ingredients a bit here, but along with a commendably tasty blend of curry and Indian spices, there are bits of chicken, potatoes, rice, peas, carrots, and some kind of vegetable protein filler (which works better here than that notion may suggest). The other lovely factor in this, my first Samosa experience, was the pleasingly oily and toothsome outer wrap itself.

I didn't know it until I bit in, but these babies got to be that weird color because they were deep fried! Hurray for for deep fried foods, right?  I'm still eating my second Samosa as I type this, and I'm going to have to attack my laptop keyboard with Formula 409 when I'm done to get all the grease off the keys.

I could have popped them in the microwave I suppose, and I have a feeling they would be totally delish that way as well, but I found them to be perfectly fabulous right out of the deli cooler on a hundred degree August day such as today. My cold peach was a genius stroke if I do say so myself, such a great sweet accompaniment for the mild spice of the Safeway Samosas. It was like Peaches & Herb performing "Reunited" right there on my very willing tongue. 

I hope the Powers That Be at the 4th Street Safeway Deli allow Nana's kitchen's Samosas to carry on being available forever and ever and ever. Because I'm hooked and the likelihood of another Samosa Spot popping up in this two-horse town anytime soon is pretty slim. I will not settle for Samoas or Mimosas or Samoans. Well, maybe a Mimosa or two would be okay...