Mumbai’s Food War | OPEN Magazine

Mumbai’s Food War | OPEN Magazine

Mumbai’s Food War

It’s out on the streets, and it’s all about laying claim to an authentic Maharashtrian snack for the masses

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BY Haima Deshpande EMAIL AUTHOR(S)

Vada Pav

In politics, it pays to bite off only as much as you can chew. Unless it’s street politics in Maharashtra, in which case it pays to go the whole hog, stuffing your mouth as much as every­body else’s you can find—with vada pav. As civic body elections approach for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), almost all political parties are at it. Playing food politics.
That this little snack was destined to at­tain cult status as a symbol of Maharashtrian identity would never have struck the man who first came up with it, a handcart entrepreneur who be­gan selling it at a street corner of Mumbai in the 1930s. The vada itself was not new to Maharashtrian homes. The round lump of mashed potato, seasoned with green chilly, coriander, turmeric and salt, coated with gram-flour and deep fried (akin to the north Indian bonda), was fa­miliar enough. But enclosed in a nicely slit squarish bun, a pav, it was an altogeth­er new package of culinary convenience.
Since most people back then ate only what was cooked in their own trusted kitchens, the new idea took time to catch on. But as the decades rolled by, the city’s appetite for the humble vada pav swelled and swelled beyond anyone’s imagina­tion. By one estimate, at least half a mil­lion units of this handy little snack sell in Mumbai every single day.,,,,,,,,,,,,,