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Ask any Mumbaikar about their favourite street food, and they will name vada pav without a second thought. Relished during breakfast, lunch, evening snack time or even dinner, the love for this humble sandwich reaches far and wide. And now, vada pav’s popularity has earned it global recognition with the street food being ranked the 13th best sandwich in the world.
Recently, a list of 50 ‘Best Sandwiches in the World’ was released by Taste Atlas, an experiential travel guide founded by Matija Babic for traditional food that collates authentic recipes, food critic reviews, and research articles about popular ingredients and dishes.
Tombik or gobit kebab, a variety of döner kebabs popular in Turkey where the shredded meat is stuffed in a bun-shaped flatbread known as pide ekmek, took the first spot in the list. It was followed by Butifarra, which is an essential Peruvian sandwich that originally consisted of a crusty white bun (roseta) filled with jamón del país (garlic-infused peppery ham), salsa criolla, lettuce, radishes, and chilli. Sandwich de lomo, an extreme version of a steak sandwich – filled with thinly sliced lomo steak, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, mayonnaise, chimichurri sauce, ham, cheese, and a fried egg, was ranked third on the list.
Check out the top 15 sandwiches in the world:
*Tombik
*Butifarra
*Sandwich de lomo
*Spiedie
*Banh mi heo quay
*Lobster Roll
*Choripan
*Toast Skagen
*Sanguche de milanesa
*Arepa andina
*Cuban Sandwich
*Chivito
*Vada Pav
*Montreal Smoked Meat
*Prego
Coming back to Mumbai’s iconic vada pav, which earned the 13th position, its name refers to the key ingredients: vada, or spicy mashed potatoes that are deep-fried in chickpea batter, and pav, or white bread rolls. “This iconic street food is said to have originated from a street vendor named Ashok Vaidya, who worked near the Dadar train station in the 1960s and 1970s,” Taste Atlas wrote.
It added: “He thought of a way to satiate the hungry workers, and concluded that the ideal dish should be portable, affordable, and easy to prepare. Ashok made vada pav, and its popularity skyrocketed, especially after the Shiv Sena, a Marathi-Hindu nationalist political party, started to promote the sandwich as an ideal working-class snack.”
Ideally accompanied by a hot red chutney with coconut, peanuts, garlic, tamarind, and chillis, vada pav is sold throughout Mumbai (and Maharashtra) on street stands and restaurants alike.
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