Fried pastry · Market snack

Sambos

📷 Closely related photo — Photo via Pexels/Unsplash — free for commercial use

Sambos share their name and shape with South Asian samosas — a direct culinary fingerprint of Madagascar's Indian Ocean trade history, not a coincidence.

Sambos are crisp, triangular fried pastries filled with spiced minced meat, vegetables, or sometimes fish, sold hot from market stalls and street carts, especially around Antananarivo's Analakely market. They're eaten as a grab-and-go snack any time of day, often alongside mofo gasy.

Why it's made this way: Traders from the Indian subcontinent and Arab world settled along Madagascar's coasts for centuries, and dishes like the samosa were adapted with local fillings and spicing, becoming a fully Malagasy street staple in the process.