In Search of Vada Pav

Posted by Sarah DiGregorio at 2:54 PM, March 25, 2008

I recently visited Mumbai to meet my fiancé's extended family, and I've come back with an unfortunate craving for vada pav (pronounced "wada pow"). There are many delicious street cart foods in New York, but vada pav is conspicuously absent.

Wada pav is to Mumbai as hot dogs (or maybe even pizza) are to New York. It's a regional favorite, adored by people from every walk of life and eaten as a snack or small meal anytime, usually at a fast food place or from a street vendor. It's like a spicy fried potato fritter sandwich, although that doesn't quite do it justice (and the picture above doesn't do it justice either).

You start with a mixture of spiced potato, mashed roughly together and flavored with mustard seeds, curry leaves, green chiles and other spices. That potato mixture is shaped into balls, dipped in a batter and deep-fried until golden and crisp—that's your "wada."

The "pav" is simply a soft, white roll, usually painted with butter and griddled until lightly toasted.

Put the wada inside the pav, dollop on a couple chutneys and serve a fried green chile on the side, and you have a wada pav—a "snack" that will sit heavily in your stomach all day, so that you almost regret eating it, but not quite.

I heard that Sukhadia's on 45th Street has wada pav, so I went up there for lunch today. Alas, I was thwarted.