A GOOD PATTY IS A THING OF BEAUTY. IT HAS LIGHT FLAKY PASTRY AND A DELICIOUS, SPICY (BUT NOT TOO TEEKHA) FILLING MADE FROM MUTTON, CHICKEN OR VEGETABLES

region, is a local variation on the skewered kababs that Arabs made.

Various claims are made for the Curry Puff (a kind of baked patty) popular in the region. Because it is clearly from the Calzone/Empanada family, it has been suggested that it emerged from the Portuguese empanada in the 15th Century.

A more plausible explanation is that, like satay, it came to South East Asia with the Arabs. (If the origin is indeed the empanada, then it is of Arab origin anyway, I guess.)

Which leaves only one question: where did the British get their pasty from? This is important because many people believe that the British introduced their empire to patty-like snacks modelled on their own Cornish pasty. While there is no shortage of historical references to the Cornish pasty, there is no agreement over its origins. One likely origin is, predictably, the empanada of Portugal and Spain. If that is so, then the pasty (and therefore the patty and the Calzone) are cousins of our samosa.

So, when I see people calling a patty a Calzone on the grounds that this sounds more sophisticated, all I can do is chuckle. The only real difference between our patties and most versions of the Calzone is that we don’t often use cheese in patties.

But even that may be changing. A couple of months ago in Ahmedabad, I was startled to discover that the city is in the grip of a ‘puff’ craze. A ‘puff’ in Ahmedabad terms, is not so different from the South East Asian Curry Puff in that it has flaky pastry, is baked, and uses spicy fillings. But here’s the thing: in cheese-crazy Ahmedabad, they often put processed cheese in their puffs. That brings it even closer to the Calzone.

As the world gets more and more international, food trends often combine. But in the case of the empanada, the calzone, the patty, the puff and the samosa, it is a little like an old Manmohan Desai movie where children of the same parents, who were separated early in life, go on to make their own destinies before discovering one day that as different as they may now seem, they are actually brothers and sisters.

As glad as I am that this is happening, I have just one request: can we please revive the great Indian patty tradition?

Let’s not allow our distinctive patties to go the way of masala popcorn and become distant memories. A well-made, flaky, spicy patty is so delicious that we owe it to ourselves to hold on to it.

And forget all that stuff about British or Portuguese origins. It is as Indian as the samosa.

The views expressed by the columnist

are personal