Dubai: Twitter users are furious. And it’s not politics, but a quarrel over dessert.
A recipe posted by Tasty, the food network of American media agency Buzzfeed described the Indian dessert – gulab jamun - as ‘Indian fried donuts’. Sacrilege decry Indian food purists.
The online food series by Tasty is highly popular amongst internet users across the world. However, this Saturday, May 26, a food video that was originally posted by them last year, infuriated Twitter users, especially those of Indian origin.
Mislabelling the syrupy Indian delicacy sparked debates about cultural insensitivity as well as giving social media users a chance to exercise their sense of humour.
Twitter @bint_al_sahn user contemplated: “Aren’t? Doughnuts? Already? Fried???” While @Monica93B posted: “Indian fried donuts? So rasgulla will be India non-fried donut?”
@kashar47 wrote: “If you think it’s fried donut, just take a donut and fry it and see if it tastes like gulab jamun.”
The debate spread to Facebook as well. Durga S. Godbole commented on Tasty’s page: “First of all, gulab jamuns cannot be called doughnuts because the latter are not soaked in flavoured, fragrant sugar syrup.”
Some tweeps were quick to turn the tables and suggested Hindi names for popular American foods.
Twitter user @nadimpatel_ posted: “Angrezi Samosay (Cornish Pasty).”
Twitter user @SupariTroller, tweeted a picture of a pizza and called it a “cheese chapati” and in another post, suggested that a hotdog can be called a “lengthy wada paav”.
But, there were also a few like @Skodithala, who accepted the food network’s description of the dish – ‘Indian Fried Doughnuts (Gulab Jamun)’ but suggested that a slight change needs to be made. She wrote: “Correction: Gulab Jamun (Indian Fried Doughnuts). Give the explanation in brackets for those who don’t understand the real thing.”
Nobody knows why the video re-surfaced after so long.
