"A political figure promotes local business"


Vada Pav



"Vada Pav!!" When you hear this name, one state comes to mind first, Maharastra! A veg potato dumpling, deep-fried & placed inside a bread bun, sliced almost in half through the middle and served with green chutney and dry red chutney (made of dry coconut).

Story behind
 
    In the late '70s(1966), a person named Ashok Vaidya started selling batata bara (deep-fried potato dumplings) near Dadar station, Mumbai. He started selling it with a bun & chutney. As the name suggests vada (dumpling) with a pav (bun). It was cheap & full of carbohydrates, sufficient to fill one's stomach. A known political leader, Balasaheb Thackeray loved that dish & spoke to the seller & said if he needed some help, he may ask for it at any time. During this time unemployment of the youth was rising heavily, and that is when Balasaheb Thackeray came up with an idea of a cheap & low investment local business. He said it's better to do something than nothing at all, so he started promoting the Vada Pav business as it was affordable and easy to make. It helped a lot of people become financially stable, and people were no longer hungry or sleeping without food. Since then it became an integral part of Maharastra's food culture or you can say it began to symbolize the state itself.

Fun fact about Vada Pav
  • There is another popular street food called "Dabeli", which might seem similar, but to be honest there is a lot of difference. Want to know more? Wait for my next blog.

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