Mumbaikars loves street food and consumed it with plenty of zeal! Vada Pav
The fancy of many foodies has since time immemorial caught in Mumbai and its rich foodscape. Bombay is the nucleus of the country’s top restaurants and hotel chains, but Mumbaikar’s passion for street food has not been untouched by this love. Vada pav is one such street food that they cherished and consumed passionately. You might have observed the strange obsession of Pav if you were in Mumbai and had the opportunity to visit the food scene. Sabzi, keema, Vada, and Chutney are square bread that can be paired with something. It is thought that during their colonial stint in Goa, the Portuguese invented the idea of baking bread.
You tried your hardest to mix your European tastes with Indian tadka.
The breadmakers went to Mumbai from Goa. Yeasty and fluffy plans here were furious. Since Mumbai was the shopping center for British bread makers, they have raked enough moolah to finance their family and small businesses. Then the turn of Iranians, using Pav and bun as part of their snacks in their kitschy cafes, turned out to be inexpensive, affordable, and mass-favoured with time pav.
At a tempo that is hardly expected by a street-side Fast Food Vendor, he threw into the hot cooking oil that had long been sizzling, a batch of spherical ‘batata vada.” Vada is potato patties from mashed potatoes combined with finely chopped onion, green chillies, coriander, and spices, which have been pounded into chickpea just before they have been fried.
They were prepared five times after throwing and turning the Vada. He picked up a square-shaped loaf, called ‘Pav,’ and cut it off, as precision and finesse, with a doctor. He placed the Vada between two layers of Pav in sandpaper slathered with green chutney (made from chili and coriander) and garlic chutney. In return for 20 bucks, he wrapped it in a square paper cutout of an old daily and gave it to me with 2 fried green chillies.
The moment I bite into Vada Pav, as in Mumbai, its flavor graduated me with an incredible gastronomic experience. Simply put, it was just tasty.
Here is Ranveer Brar’s Recipe of Vada Pav
Ashok Vaidya receives credit for inventing the Vada Pav rustic and mouth-watering taste and flavor that the whole of Mumbai still relishes. Thackeray called on Maharashtrians in the 1960s to become enterprises as South Indians had in establishing Udupi restaurants. This inspired Vaidya, who set up an outdoor stand in Parel and Worli’s suburban area, outside the station of Dadar in1966, to walk by hundreds and thousands of employees every day. In front of the store that sold Omelet, Pav started to market Vada and Poha. Once, he played with a Vada and some chutney between Pav to add more flavor.
The outcome of the Vada Pav experiment was instantly struck.
During the 1970s and 1980s, several protests lead to the closure of several textile factories. In exchange, several former employees in the mill opened their own Vada Pav stalls with Shiv Sena’s help. Soon, a drastic increase occurred in Vada Pav. It started to be known by the working class as a snack. It’s been fast, affordable, and easy to eat. These causes contributed to a rise in the appeal of those who had little time or leisure in busy local trains on their lengthy journeys.
Even Late Balasaheb Thackeray was a keen and frequent customer fan of Vaidya’s Vada Pav. Thackerey told BMC officials not to trouble Vaidya in any situation! Their relationship was soon formed into friendship and according to legends!
The 1990s saw the arrival in India of the McDonald’s American fast-food chain and its steady growth. Maharashtra’s fascination with the Vada Pav, however, could not be accepted. This was partly due to using a common recette and different facilities to produce Mcdonald’s burgers. The effect of this mechanization is that everybody eats the same burgers. But with Vada Pav, that is not the case.
Almost all vendors have a unique formula and a separate ingredient in their Vada Pav. This is what Indians want in a country like India, which has a variety of cultures. We want to suit our diverse preferences, and at that time, McDonald’s struggled to fulfill our numerous buds’ demands.
Also Read, The origin story of Gol Gappe
Ashok Vaidya died on 6 July 1998 when he was 58. His invention, Vada Pav, brought together all of Maharashtra and blurred every dividing line. Both of them are fans of Vada Pav, and many other fans are yet to come who will remain spellbound when they taste them, from films to cricketers to industries and wage laborers every day.
In the shape of his son, Narendra, the history, the mindset, and the simplicity of Vaidya lives. He sought to be a fashion designer and graduated in business. When Vaidya died, Narendra took over the company shortly after the elder brother pursued an MBA. Today, however, after 22 years of Vaidya’s death, he is still outside the No. 1 platform on the western line, selling Vada Pav with the same ease and style his father used to do all those years ago.
The Vada used in the vada pav consists of boiled potatoes and a pool of spices. Sellers sometimes fry and hold them aside in advance. You coat them into the Pav and sprinkle them with tasty chutney coriander eaten with green chillies and masala. The fact that the Vada Pav day is held every year on 23 August can also be seen in terms of the snack’s success.
Mumbai has many cult vada pav stalls, and it’s a never-ending argument on the best of all. Four of the most emblematic are places outside Kirti College of Dadar, Shivaji Vada Pav of Vile Parle, and Aram Vada Pav, in front of Shivaji terminus of Chhatrapati.
