Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra is famous for its historical monuments, tourism, Bollywood, street foods, and large markets made into the headlines. Mumbai’s famous street food ‘Vada Pav’ is featured in a list by a popular food and travel guide ‘TasteAtlas’. It ranked 19th position in the top 20 best sandwiches in the world.
The Vada Pav consists of a deep-fried vada which is made up of spiced potato mix, coated in a batter of besan, and sandwiched between a type of soft bread bun called pav. It is served with chutneys, dry garlic, and green chilies. This popular street food is known to the world as Indian Burger now ranked as one of the best sandwiches in the world.
TasteAtlas, a popular food and travel guide, announced the best sandwiches in the world, based on its current ranking for March 2024. The first, second, and third spots were taken by Banh Mi, Tombik Doner, and Shawarma and Indian Vada Pav took the 19th spot.
This food and travel guide explained the origin of Vada Pav. They said that this popular street food is said to have been invented by a street vendor named Ashok Vaidya. In the 1960s and 1970s, he worked near the Dadar train station. He thought of a way to satisfy the hungry mill workers and inferred that the ideal dish should be movable, inexpensive, and easy to make.
Ashok delivers fresh poha and batata vadas and noticed his neighbor, who was selling bun and omelet, which laid the basis for his invention. He took the inspiration to combine the two elements. This is how the famous Vada Pav originated and claims a place in the best sandwiches in the world.
This delicious street food is often served with different fillings, chutneys, and toppings. It is also served in the top-ranking restaurants in the world. Based on their taste preferences people choose different toppings and chutneys like dry garlic chutney, imli chutney, green chili-coriander chutney. This Indian food is also one of the favorite vegan snacks in the world due to the absence of dairy or any meat and loaded with a lot of flavors.
Vada Pav occupied the 13th position in the year 2023. Since last year it dropped by 6 positions. Before this Indian snack was made into the list, an Indian drink was ranked second on TasteAtlas's list. Indian filter coffee, the iconic South Indian beverage was ranked 2nd among the 10 best-rated coffees around the world. The first position is taken by Cafe Cubano.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Lavanya Beeraboina)
