Vada Pav, Mumbai’s pride, has been rated as the world’s 13th finest Sandwich
Every state has a signature food that is popular throughout the country. Similarly, Vada Pav, a popular snack in Maharashtra, has been named the world’s 13th finest sandwich by Taste Atlas. Taste Atlas announced the rating in a Twitter post. Any Mumbaikar would tell you that their favourite street snack is ‘Vada Pav’ without a doubt. This humble sandwich is loved by many people and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, late snack time, or even dinner. And now, Vada pav’s popularity has garnered it global acclaim, with the street delicacy named the world’s 13th greatest sandwich.
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Recently, a list of 50 ‘Best Sandwiches in the World’ was issued by Taste Atlas, an immersive travel guide developed by Matija Babic for traditional food that curates original recipes, food critic ratings, and research papers about popular ingredients and meals.
Vada Pav was ranked 13th, and the cuisine earned a rating of 4.4. Taste Atlas presented the whole menu, which included 50 courses. Tombik was the first on the list, while Torta Ahogada was the last.
When Tombik or gobit kebab, a type of döner kebab popular in Turkey in which the shredded meat is packed in a bun-shaped flatbread known as pide ekmek, topped the list, followed by Butifarra, a traditional Peruvian sandwich made of a crusty white bread stuffed with jamón del pas (garlic-infused spicy ham), salsa criolla, lettuce, radishes, and chillie. Sandwich de lomo, a steak sandwich with thinly sliced lomo steak, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, mayonnaise, chimichurri sauce, ham, cheese, and a fried egg, was placed third on the list.
Returning to Mumbai’s famous vada pav, which took 13th place, the name relates to the main components, which are vada, spicy mashed potatoes deep-fried in chickpea batter, and pav, or white bread rolls. According to Tata Atlas, this popular street snack was created by a street vendor named Ashok Vaidya who operated near the Dadar train station in the 1960s and 1970s.
He added that he considered a means to feed the hungry employees and determined that the ideal food should be portable, inexpensive, and simple to prepare. So, Ashok created vada pav, which quickly became popular, especially after the Shiv Sena, a Marathi-Hindu nationalist political organization, began to market the sandwich as an ideal working-class lunch.
Ideally served with a spicy red chutney made of coconut, peanuts, garlic, tamarind, and chillies, vada pav is offered on street corners and in restaurants around Bombay and Maharashtra.
Unfortunately, not everyone was pleased with the food item’s rating. The snack should have been ranked first, according to the desi foodies on the microblogging platform. Some have also claimed that Vada Pav is not a sandwich. Several Twitter users retweeted the list and slammed the rating. A hot oiled pav with crispy, somewhat mushy, and tasty vada topped with a little garlic and spicy topped with chilies will make your mouth water by just reading this! Foodies cannot afford to miss the flavour of the vada pav solely based on the aroma as they pass by the side road.
