Restaurant Attempts To Send 'Samosa' Into Space, Balloon Crash-Lands In France

A British restaurateur used a weather balloon intending to send the delectable Indian snack “samosas” into space but the journey was cut short after the balloon crash-landed in France.

Samosa is an Indian tea-time snack made by stuffing mashed potatoes into dough cut into a triangle and fried thereafter. The restaurant-owner said he sought to bring some laughter to ease the pandemic woes.

Niraj Gadher, the owner of the Chai Walla eatery in Bath, England, installed the packet of "samosas" on Dec. 31 to the balloon which was equipped with a GPS tracker and a GoPro camera in order for them to track the food item’s journey but the balloon ended up crash-landing in a field in Caix, Picardie, France.

An Instagram user, Axel Mathon, who is on a mission to explore crash sites, discovered the balloon and the box containing the GoPro and the GPS clinging to a tree in the field about a week later.

However, the "samosas" and the wrapper were strangely missing from the crash site, leading Mathon to believe the wildlife might have relished them.

Mathon jokingly likened the unusual discovery to a "treasure hunt." "It was a bit like a treasure hunt, I thought it was crazy! We usually see this kind of story in the United States. Well, this is in a lost field in Picardy," Mathon told Tv outlet France 3.

Gadher said although his dream didn’t come to fruition, it managed to make people laugh anyway.

"I said as a joke once that I would send a samosa into space, and then I thought during this bleak times we could all use a reason to laugh," Gadher told Somerset Live."The feedback is that it's bought a lot of laughter from people and that's what we wanted really, to spread joy."

"We've kept in touch with the guy that found it and he's said when the world is more normal he'll come over to Bath and meet us," Gadher continued.

It’s unclear how high the "samosas" went, but recordings of the GoPro camera showed an airplane passing next to it.