Vadapav

If you ask a mumbaikar (mumbait) as to what he has been born and brought up with, many answers would come. Some would say mumbai local train, some would argue it with gardi (marathi) or bheed (hindi) as people around never seem to vanish. A film buff would certainly call for bollywood while marathi manus would pitch in for Natak. For me though, there is only one thing that symbolizes Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and that is none other than Vadapav. Pav bhaji, pani puri, bhel puri and other chat items come close but can not really replace the importance of Vadapav in Mumbaikars life. This was the reason why I have nominated Vadapav in IMEC's cookbook this year.

The story on the internet about Vadapav's origin says that some time in the 1960's or the 1970's a mill worker in Mumbai always managed to skip his breakfast to make it on time to his work place. Concerned about his health his mother/wife thought of a new way for him to be able to take his BHAJI* (Mashed/diced potatoes mixed with green chillies, ginger and a tadka (tempering) of mustard seeds and turmeric.) and have it on the move.

She made balls of BHAJI dipped them into batter made of gram flour and deep fried them. Thus was born the BATATA VADA. Later came along the PAV (a kind of bun, in India it is known as Pav) and so did the Chutney (essentially garlic and red chilli.)

I am not sure if the tale is true or not, but who cares all I know is some smart Maharashtrian cook did magic and stumbled upon what is now the MOST common and exhaustively consumed fast food in Maharashtra. Nowadays, BATATA VADA is the MOST popular and people love to have it any time of the day during all seasons. The combination of BATATA VADA and split PAV along with chutney continues to be Mumbai's sledgehammer answer to the hamburger.

Drawing inspiration from the story when we made Vadapav @ Naveen's place in Leuven, they looked like this (Picture Quality Regretted)......Yummy!!!!!