Vada Pav – Mumbai’s Street Food

As a teenager I used to beg my Dad to take us to the local Wimpey for a burger. It was where all my friends used to go.

I was curious to see what a hamburger tasted like. Well, Dad wasn’t having any of it. One day he had enough, and told me after school he’d make the best burger ever to have been invented. Of course, I sulked and although my Dad was an amazing cook, I knew he had no idea what a hamburger was!

As I walked home from school, I wondered what my Dad may have come up with. As I got closer to my garden gate, I could smell all the usual aromas of whole spices and instantly felt disappointed.

As I entered through the back door, Dad had the biggest grin on his face, and instantly told me to sit down. He said ‘Anjula this Vada Pav has to be eaten piping hot – it’s Mumbai’s answer to a burger. So I sat and watched as Dad excitedly added spices, fresh curry leaves, coriander stalks to boiled potatoes, mashed them roughly and formed a burger shape. He then dipped them into some gram flour batter which also had spices running through it, with fresh coriander & fenugreek leaves.

He proceeded to deep fry the potato until it was golden brown & crispy. Then he told me about the three chutneys he’d made. “Anjula this dry red chilli chutney is delicious. I’ve added nuts, some coconut, a little garlic, ginger & asafoetida”.

He excitedly talked about another chutney which I’d not eaten before. He had fried some fresh green chillies and pounded them in the pestle and mortar, added a little jaggery, black rock salt, fresh coriander & yogurt. He also had the tamarind chutney ready too, which had already become one of my favourite chutneys.

He then took out some delicious looking bread rolls from the oven, split them open and started building! First a good spread of the green chutney followed by fresh tomatoes, red onion, a generous sprinkle of the dry red chilli chutney, and a blob of tamarind chutney followed by the crispy spicy potato.

Well I have to say the flavours where incredible the fried green chilli chutney with yogurt sent my taste buds into overdrive, and the dry chilli chutney was just magic, you could really taste the nuts & coconut and the deliciously hot chillies worked really well.  Dad was a master at balancing flavours & spices even the Garlic & ginger came through softly.

From there on I wasn’t really to bothered about going to the Wimpey bar anymore I was quite happy with Dad’s take on Mumbai’s love affair Vada Pav ?

BTW years later I did get to taste a burger and I have to say I’m so pleased my culinary genius Dad taught me how to make really good tasty home cooked food!