Inside-Out Vada Pav at Dadar

- By Deepa Krishnan

If you walk from Dadar Station to Hindmata, you'll come across this little khau-galli type scene. There are motorbikes and scooters parked in a row, and behind that, under the shade of some trees, you will see a series of bright umbrellas with food carts.

In one of the stalls, there's a vada-pav seller. At first glance, he looks like any other vada-pav guy, selling batata-vada, palak-bhajji etc, but if you have a keen eye you'll soon spot his larger than usual batata-vadas (see them at the back?).

It turns out that those are not your regular batata-vadas at all. What they are, is Inside Out Vada-Paos. This little stall has flipped the regular vada-pao inside out. They've taken the batata-masala, and stuffed it inside a bun. Then they dip the bun in the batter and fry it.

This simple reversal trick has created a delicious Inside-Out Vada Pav, which I have become addicted to. I went shopping with my mom and sister, and stopped to eat it. Then I went with my aunt from Bangalore, and tried it again. And then I went by myself and had it yet again :)

By the way, I've also had a very upscale (and very expensive) version of this is at Masala Library @ BKC. That was pretty awesome too, but it didn't have the crazy chutneys that I got in Dadar. The Inside-Out Vada Pao at Dadar is served with a green chutney and a strange orange chutney. Both are delicioso, but I have no idea what the orangey thing is. It felt like tomato and kaddu and god knows what else. I have to charm the guy into telling me. Usually he is pretty busy and tends to not talk much. I'll report again if I get him to speak :) :)