The Chai Walla restaurant in Bath, England has over 670 five-star reviews on TripAdvisor, and satisfied customers have described its samosas as "incredible," "wonderful," and "the best south of Birmingham." As impressive as it is to have the best appetizers on that side of the West Midlands, even Birmingham's top Indian spots can't say their samosas are out of this world. 

Thanks to a helium-filled weather balloon, a GPS tracker, and a GoPro camera, Chai Walla can use those actual words—and it's not hyperbole either. As reported by Somerset Live, owner Niraj Gadher came up with the ambitious idea to send one of his samosas into space, so he collected all of the necessary equipment and gave it a go. 

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

Gadher and some friends put together a small package containing both an aloo samosa and a wrap from the restaurant, headed to an open field, and prepared for their lunch—er, their launch. On the first attempt, the balloon got away from them before they'd attached the food. ("I'm really sorry to everyone that we lost those balloons, for environmental reasons," he said. "That was obviously not the plan.") On the second try, there wasn't enough helium to send them skyward, but the third time, everything came together just as they'd hoped. 

The food parcel made it high enough that the attached GoPro filmed a passing airplane, and the altitude also made the GPS freak out. Gadher lost contact with it overnight, but then the data confirmed that the samosa had made it over the English Channel before falling back to Earth somewhere in Caix, France.

Team Chai Walla started messaging French Instagrammers who lived near the landing site, which was more than 300 miles from Bath. "At first I really thought it was rubbish, that they were trying to rip me off," Axel Mathon, who received one of Gadher's DMs, told a French news outlet. "And then he sent me a video explaining the whole story to me." 

Mathon was curious enough that he drove more than an hour to see if he could find whatever might be left of the package. "Really until I got here, I couldn't believe it," he said. "When I looked up, I saw the burst helium balloon in the trees, and I found this well-packed polystyrene box. It was a bit like a treasure hunt, I thought it was crazy!"

He was able to recover the GPS and the camera—but some local animal beat him to the samosa and the wrap. (Regardless, Mathon definitely deserves a complimentary meal the next time he's in the south of England.) 

Your move, every other restaurant in Bath.

This story originally appeared on Food & Wine .

Source: Read Full Article