East African sambusa is the Twin Cities' defining street snack: triangle-folded pastry filled with cumin-spiced beef, scallion and green chili, deep-fried to a glassy crackle.

The Twin Cities hold the largest Somali population in the United States, roughly 80,000 in the metro, anchored in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood west of downtown Minneapolis since the early 1990s. Sambusas, the East African cousin of the South Asian samosa, came with the diaspora and now sit at every Somali deli counter in the city. Afro Deli, opened on Riverside Avenue in 2010, set the bar for the Twin Cities version: thinner pastry than the South Asian samosa, beef seasoned with cumin and cardamom, served with green hot sauce. Safari Restaurant runs a Halal kitchen of the same caliber.

2 editor picks for Sambusa in Minneapolis, ranked by editorial score. All Minneapolis signature dishes · Sambusa across every city.