April Fool’s Day around the world is for jokes and pranks. Usually, the prank is played on others – and usually, they don’t backfire. Pakistan’s Lay’s can’t boast of the same this year. Lay’s Pakistan on April 1 announced a new flavor to hit the market on their official Facebook page – but the flavour isn’t uncommon, not to desis at least. The new flavour is being called the ‘Doodh Patti’ flavor. Desis are no strangers to ‘doodh patti,’ another way of saying ‘chai,’ which is the national favourite beverage for all desis. The brand decided to play on just that sentiment to market their product as a joke but we can’t say it went very well.
While someone using chai as a tool in making their product would be amusing at best on other days, Desi’s didn’t find the joke funny on April Fool’s Day – nobody messes with chai. And fortunately, the joke wasn’t real because nobody wanted to even imagine how chai-flavoured chips would taste like.
The Facebook post saw more negative comments on it than people appreciating the joke. “These are times when l wish Facebook had a vomit reaction,” wrote one.
The joke also may be ill-timed for an April Fool’s Prank, partly owing to all the bizarre food combinations that have surfaced in the last year of lockdown.
In February, a mix of the classic French croissant and the staple Mumbai snack, vada pav, went viral and desis wanted to save the two distressed dishes. They weren’t the only bizarre combo – it’s become a fast-growing trend. This trend basically has two different food items combined, making everyone cringe in one go. The latest food combo that has joined the bandwagon is Biryani with strawberries aka ‘Strawbiryani.’
More such food mixes that went into the ‘strictly no’ category. The recent examples are that of Maggi Panipuri, Ice-cream Dosa, Curd Maggi, Kiwi Pizza and even Gulab Jamun Pancake. Dosa with red sauce pasta also didn’t quite settle well with netizens.
Read our full list of how Maggi in curd, kheer, chocolate, golgappa has been the worst-hit casualty of lockdown cooking.