It is a case of forgive them, O Lord, for they know not what they do. So apparently a Facebook channel called Cookist Wow put up recipes teaching people how to make what appears to be good old naan and called it ‘balloon bread’. A few months ago, they made pooris and also called it balloon bread. Netizens weren't having it. WTF they said. Take a look:
In March, the channel published a video recipe titled ‘Balloon bread: ready without yeast in a few minutes!’ This was basic puri. The video said ‘watch the dough puff up in 60 seconds.’
Then more recently at the end of September, they came up with a video recipe, this time of naan. ‘Baloon bread: a spicy side dish to enjoy with every recipe!’ is the title of the video.
The Facebook video bears the tagline “Why didn't we think of this before?” Err we did – a very, very long time ago.
Not so much.
The tweeple are not amused by all of this. Because clearly this is naan.
The term balloon bread will catch people’s attention but it’s little more than mislabeling; at best rebranding.
There are those who love bread. There are those who love naan. Why mix it up?
This? Then perhaps daal is warm grain juice and achaar is spicy fruit suggested another tweet.
…True!
One commentator expressed annoyance at the ‘sheer caucasity of this’ (should it be caucacious-ness, I don't know). Another tweet called it the gentrification of roti.
Cultural appropriation! There I said it. Either there are some people in the West so ignorant of other cuisines that they are making ‘discoveries’ that we made ages ago. Or they are just taking recipes from other cultures, repurposing them, renaming them and passing them off as new inventions. Either way, the world isn't going to remember balloon bread. We've been making and eating roti, phulka, naan and poori for way too long.
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