Halal snack pack named people’s choice word of 2016 by Macquarie Australian English Dictionary
Dictionary editor devours her first HSP to mark the occasion
By Emily Woods
It’s meaty, cheesy, and incredibly saucy, and it was the word on every Australian’s lips in 2016.
Last year was a momentous one for the Halal Snack Pack.
There were queues at kebab stands as its popularity skyrocketed, a HSP appreciation society was formed, and the greasy treat made its mark on Australian politics on election night when Labour senator Sam Dastyari offered to take Pauline Hanson out for a halal bite.
Finally the people have spoken. Halal snack pack (HSP), “a fast food comprising layers of hot chips, grated cheese, halal doner kebab meat, garlic sauce, barbecue sauce and chilli sauce”, has been named People’s Choice Word of the Year 2016 by Macquarie Dictionary.
“The significance of halal snack pack is that it tells us about something once confined largely to the Muslim community that is now surfacing throughout the broader Australian community,” the Macquarie committee said.
