Vada Pav

Vada pav is a spiced, deep-fried potato ball tucked whole into a soft bread roll with a smear of chutney and a fried green chilli on the side. It's Mumbai's everyday snack, sold from carts on nearly every corner of the city, and it's often called the city's own answer to a burger — a cheap, filling bite built for eating on the move, standing up, between one errand and the next.

What it really is

Mashed potato, tempered with mustard seed, curry leaf, turmeric and a little garlic-ginger paste, shapes into a ball and dips into a gram-flour batter before frying until the coating turns golden and crisp. The whole vada — not sliced, not mashed further — tucks into a soft, split bread roll, usually with a smear of garlic or tamarind chutney and a dry, spicy powder called sev bhaji masala worked in for extra heat. A fried, salted green chilli often comes alongside, meant to be bitten between mouthfuls rather than added into the roll itself.

The vada goes into the roll whole, not sliced or crumbled. Keeping it intact is what gives vada pav its bite — a solid, spiced potato core against the softness of the bread — and mashing it into the roll instead turns the texture closer to a spread than the layered bite the snack is built around.

How it's served

• Hot, in a soft bread roll, with chutney smeared inside.
• With a fried green chilli alongside, eaten separately between bites.
• As a street food snack, sold from carts and eaten standing, at any hour.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat from the bread roll.
• It's naturally vegetarian.
• Say how spicy the chutney and chilli run, since both can be genuinely hot.