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We love how sometimes just a slice of tomato is enough to add the much-needed drama to any dish. From a banal sandwich to a boring salad, with the tangy chutzpah of tomatoes, there’s barely anything that you cannot turn around. Even in Indian street food, tomatoes have a prominent place. Even though the space is dominated with potatoes (think: batata vada, aloo tikki, aloo chaat etc), without the tangy goodness of tomatoes, things do not quite add up. This is why perhaps, when this street food vendor decided to sneak in two slices of tomato inside the vada of the vada pav, the internet was rather welcoming.
Vada Pav, for the uninitiated, is a Maharashtrian snack, which comprises a batata vada, which is a batter-coated, stuffed potato patty. This deep-fried vada is placed inside a pav bread and served with chutney and chilly. The snack originated outside Dadar station and became the go-to snack for the working class of Mumbai within no time. Over the years, Vada pav was reimagined and experimented with in various ways, from cheese vada pav to pizza vada pav, you get the drift.
In this YouTube video shot by Aamchi Mumbai, a Vada Pav vendor is not only experimenting with the traditional recipe but also selling it for the ‘cheapest’ rates, as claimed by the channel. You can get this Vada pav for a mere INR 12. The video also captures the making of the vada pav at the Bhagat Vada Pav, Kandivali Bhaji Market, Kandivali East. The vendor takes one slice of tomato and lands a spicy boiled potato mixture on top, he places another slice of tomato on top of the potato mixture, creating a sandwich of sorts. He dips it in a smooth and luscious besan batter and deep fries it in oil. He then grabs hold of the pav, slices it from the middle and slathers some chilli chutney, sweet chutney, and schezwan sauce and places the tomato-batata vada.
The video has clocked more than 519k views in just three days of going live and the comments section was impressed by both the vada pav and the vada pav vendor “Hats off to this guy! There is nothing goof than helping parents and growing their business”, wrote a user. “In the year 2022, super delicious vadapav for only 12 rupees is an unbelievable thing”, wrote another. “Looks so yummy, love this food”, wrote a user from Bangladesh.
