The Christmas Cookie That’ll Start a Fight

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Aishwarya Jagani

With so many varieties of the crunchy treat, and so many different local names for it, it is no wonder that rose cookies, rosettes, achappam, or whatever you like to call them, sparked a mini Twitter war last Christmas over what they’re actually called. Twitter user @misandristbb shared a picture of freshly prepared rose cookies, and found herself deluged with messages from Malayalis, the people of Kerala, who insisted they were called achappam, and not rose cookies.

Malayali food writer Kaviya Cherian said of the controversy “The rose cookie is a good example of why it is dangerous to try and pursue the most ‘authentic’ version of any specific cultural food: Every country — and in some cases, region or state — is going to claim its own version as the most authentic one. And they won’t be wrong.”

 

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