Pav bhaji is a popular street snack originating from the Indian state of Maharashtra. It consists of a vegetable curry that is typically served with a soft bread roll known as pav. The dish was invented in the 1850s as a midnight meal by street vendors who prepared it with all the leftover vegetables from the day, which were then mashed and combined with spices and ghee butter.
Originally, it was a quick and easy meal for Mumbai's textile mill workers, but today it is a favorite street snack that is also served in some restaurants in Mumbai. There are a lot of varieties of the basic pav bhaji, with added cheese, paneer, mushrooms, plantains, and even dried fruits thrown in the flavorful curry mix.
MOST ICONIC Pav bhaji
View moreMisal pav is a traditional dish originating from Maharashtra. Its two main components are misal – a curry made with sprouted moth beans, usually topped with chivda, onions, chilis, and potatoes – and pav, bread rolls used to mop up the flavorful curry.
Misal pav can be served for breakfast, as a snack or a main dish. It is commonly found in roadside stalls, breakfast joints, and office canteens.
MOST ICONIC Misal pav
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Vada pav is one of Mumbai's favorite sandwiches, its name referring 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.
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.
MOST ICONIC Vada pav
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Bhelpuri (also spelled bhel puri) is a type of chaat - a savory snack that is commonly served in cafés and street carts throughout India. There is a lot of debate about what should go in a bhelpuri, but the most commonly used ingredients include puffed rice, ground nuts, potatoes, onions, and chilis.
Tamarind or date chutneys are commonly used to give the dish a spicy flavor. The dish is extremely popular in Mumbai, where it is usually enjoyed as a beach snack or comfort food. Although there is no clear evidence about the time of bhelpuri's origin, it is believed that the snack was invented by an unknown Gujarati migrant.
MOST ICONIC Bhelpuri
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These crispy Indian fritters consist of a combination of soaked tapioca pearls, mashed potatoes, roasted and crushed peanuts, and a variety of spices such as turmeric, chili, ginger, and fresh coriander. Sabudana vada fritters can be found at many stalls throughout Maharashtra and are especially popular in Mumbai.
Since they do not contain meat, the fritters are a favorite fasting snack. Sabudana vada is typically served hot, paired with yogurt or chutney.
MOST ICONIC Sabudana vada
View moreBatata vada is a popular vegetarian street food item that was invented in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is a potato fritter made with a combination of mashed potatoes and spices that is shaped into a ball, dipped in chickpea batter called besan, then deep-fried.
The dish is typically served with a chutney consisting of shredded coconut, tamarind, and garlic. Batata vada is also a part of a popular Indian sandwich called vada pav, consisting of batata vada and chutney, served on soft buns called pav.
MOST ICONIC Batata vada
View moreRagda pattice is a flavorful and popular street food of Mumbai, consisting of two parts: ragda, which is a dried yellow pea stew, and pattice, referring to a fried mashed potato patty. It is typically served with various chutneys, then topped with papadi and sev.
Ragda pattice is usually garnished with finely chopped coriander leaves and onions on top. Although not much is known about the origin or the inventor of the dish, ragda pattice remains one of the most popular chaats of Mumbai beaches, sold by numerous street food vendors.
MOST ICONIC Ragda pattice
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Bombay sandwich is a traditional sandwich originating from Mumbai, hence the name. In order to prepare it, green chutney is spread on a slice of crustless white sandwich bread, while butter is spread on the other slice. What goes in between the two slices is a medley of vegetables and spices such as sliced boiled potatoes, masala spices (cumin, fennel, black pepper cinnamon, chaat masala), tomatoes, cucumbers, and onion slices.
The green chutney is usually made by blending mint, coriander, chili peppers, and various spices. There are many types of Bombay sandwiches, and it can be made with three layers (three slices of bread), but each layer should contain a generous amount of masala spices.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Hailing from Maharashtra, dahi puri consists of a puri shell that is hollowed out, then stuffed with potatoes, chaat masala, onions, and a variety of chutneys before it is finished with beaten yogurt, crunchy sev (crispy strands of flour), and a few fresh coriander leaves on top.
This dish is a variation of the popular Indian street snack called panipuri, and it derives its name from the words dahi, meaning thick yogurt, and puri, which is a round, crispy-fried, and puffy Indian bread. The stuffing can be enhanced with the addition of other ingredients such as sprouted mung beans or boiled black chickpeas.
MAIN INGREDIENTS
Although it originates from Kutch in Indian Gujarat, this filling snack is also enjoyed in other parts of the country. Dabeli combines toasted ladi pav buns and a filling that is made with mashed potatoes and a spice mix usually consisting of coriander, turmeric, cardamom, fennel seeds, coriander, chili peppers, and other spices.
The filling is topped with roasted peanuts, pomegranate seeds, and sev — tiny, crispy noodles made from ground chickpeas, while typical additions also include different chutney varieties. Dabeli, which translates as pressed, is mainly sold and enjoyed as street food.
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