Mumbai, Vada Pao and Memories

Till 2001, I'd just heard about Vada Pao (a local Mumbai dish which, if I say 'Mumbaikars swear by it' won't be any exaggeration). The first time when I tasted Vada Pao, it appeared to me as a cheap option to satisfy the apatite. You shell out just a couple of rupees and you are through. It's nothing but a fried ball of meshed potato (Vada) going inside a loaf of locally made bread (Pao) wrapped in a piece of old local newspaper so that you don't spoil your hands and there you go!!!

So, when I came here (Mumbai), I hardly knew anyone and thus reaching out to a Vada Pao seller was slightly out of the way. It's only later that I came to know that every nook and corner of this city you can find a seller of Vada Pao.

Once I got that taste, in those two years of my stay in Mumbai, I must have eaten Vada Pao 100-200-300 times without bothering about the oil that it is cooked in, the hygene that a seller follows, the affect it will have on my tummy. I got addictive. And when I left Mumbai in 2003, among a few prominent things which were unforgettable was Vada Pao.

I must have visited Mumbai at least a dozen times after that for office work and what not but didn't get one damn chance to eat this dish.

Today after a gap of six years, I earned a Vada Pao at last. It was so gratifying that I just can't explain. Despite being in a very strict diet program and off the oily food, I didn't resist the temptation to go for it and I realized it was a risk worth taken. I mean, silly dish, cheap stuff but still addictive. I suggest Mumbaikars should patent this if nothing else!!!!