Vada pav or Shiv vada—winners of the Sena-induced contest say the potato burger is closer to the hearts of Mumbaikars than one may imagine

IF the distinct identities of cities are shaped through their most common sights, sounds and smells, the streets of Mumbai are characterised by the whiff of frying batata vadas. Of course, there is the smell of roasted peanuts and gram, or the rustle of bhel, but nothing catches the fancy of the office-leaving

executive or the wage labourer like the sight of the stall on the street corner, doling out what some like

to call our desi answer to

the burger.

The vada pav, a culinary delight whose emergence some trace back to the heyday of the mills, consists of mashed potato seasoned with mint and green chillies, dipped deep-fried in gram-flour batter and wedged between a bun, with quick smears of red, sweet tamarind chutney served with a spicy-red chilly-garlic powder. It’s “a sign of arrival in Maharashtra,” according to college student, Sreeram Rajan. “When I travel back from home in South India by train, I know I’m in Maharashtra when I hear the vendor enter the bogie with a basketful of hot vada pavs. And I always reach out for one,” he says, gleefully munching at his very own ‘joy in a bun’ at Ashok Satam’s GTO Vada Pav stall opposite Flora Fountain. A popular stopover for corporate executives, High Court lawyers, bankers and government employees, Satam’s stall has been on the same street-corner, selling vada pavs since 1971.

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