Burmese street-food samosas: thin, crispy pastry filled with spiced potato, onion, and glass noodles — eaten with tamarind sauce and fresh herbs.
Samusa are Myanmar's version of the Indian samosa, introduced via the large Indian Muslim trading community and transformed over generations into something distinctly Burmese. The filling — typically spiced potato, glass noodles, onion, and sometimes peas — is wrapped in a thinner, crispier pastry than the Indian original and deep-fried to a translucent, shatteringly crisp shell. What makes Burmese samusa distinctive is the way they are eaten: cut open or crushed into a bowl, they are served with a drizzle of thin tamarind sauce, sliced fresh chilies, a handful of crispy fried garlic, and sometimes a splash of fish sauce — transforming the samosa from a hand-held snack into a semi-deconstructed street-food bowl. Samusa are found at every teahouse (lahpet yay zain) in Myanmar, eaten alongside a glass of sweet milk tea as a mid-morning snack or afternoon treat.
Serves 4
Combine flour, salt, turmeric, and oil. Rub oil into flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add warm water gradually and knead 5 minutes into a smooth, slightly firm dough. Cover and rest 30 minutes.
Fry onion and garlic in 1 tbsp oil over medium heat until soft. Add cumin seeds, turmeric, and chili powder, stir 1 minute. Add boiled potato and glass noodles. Mash potato roughly, leaving some chunks. Season with fish sauce and salt. Cool.
Divide dough into 12 balls. Roll each into a thin circle (15cm diameter). Cut in half. Fold one half into a cone, seal the straight edge with water, fill with 2 tbsp filling, fold the top over and seal completely.
Ensure all edges are tightly sealed — any gap will allow oil to enter and filling to leak.
Heat oil to 170°C. Fry samusa in batches of 4-5 for 5-7 minutes until deep golden and crispy. Do not crowd the oil.
Combine tamarind water with palm sugar and a pinch of salt. Simmer 3 minutes until slightly thickened.
Crush or cut samusa into pieces in a bowl. Drizzle tamarind sauce. Top with fresh cilantro and green chili. Serve immediately.
Thin pastry is the hallmark of Burmese samusa — roll as thin as possible for the characteristically crispy, nearly translucent shell.
Oil temperature of 170°C (not higher) ensures the pastry cooks through completely before the outside darkens.
Eating samusa deconstructed in a bowl with sauce is the authentic Myanmar teahouse experience.
Vegetarian samusa: replace fish sauce with soy sauce. The dish is nearly vegetarian already.
Pea and potato samusa: the most common Indian-influenced version, adding 100g frozen peas to the filling.
Fried samusa keep at room temperature up to 4 hours. Reheat in a 180°C oven for 8 minutes to restore crispiness. Unfried samusa freeze well for up to 2 months; fry from frozen, adding 2-3 minutes.
Samusa arrived in Myanmar with Indian Muslim traders and subsequently with the large Bengali and Indian communities that settled in Rangoon during British colonial rule (1824-1948). The word samusa derives from the Persian sambosag, indicating the Persian-Indian trade route origin of the dish. Myanmar cooks adapted it with local flavors (glass noodles, fish sauce, turmeric in the pastry) and the distinctive teahouse-serving culture, creating a version that is now thoroughly Burmese.
Glass noodles (also called bean thread noodles or cellophane noodles) are transparent noodles made from mung bean starch. They add a slightly chewy, slippery texture to the filling. You can skip them and add extra potato, but they are traditional in the Burmese version.
The dough wasn't rolled thin enough. It should be almost translucent when held to light. Resting the dough for 30 minutes makes it much easier to roll without spring-back.
Brush with oil and bake at 200°C for 25 minutes, flipping halfway. The pastry will be crunchy but less shatteringly crisp than fried. For authentic samusa texture, frying is the correct method.
Per serving (200g / 7.1 oz) · 4 servings total
Ask our AI cooking assistant anything about this recipe — substitutions, techniques, scaling.
Chat with AI Chef →Join the conversation
Sign in to leave a comment and save your favourite recipes
Have feedback or need help?
We read every email and reply within 1–2 business days.
© 2026 MyCookingCalendar. All rights reserved.