Dabeli

Another tasty Indian snack food. Dabeli comes from the Gujarat region and can easily be termed as another version of an Indian burger. It is a Spiced Potatoes and Pomegranate Sandwich in Raghavan Iyer's words.

This spicy potato mixture enclosed between a burger bun, smeared with a sweet and tart tamarind chutney and a spicy hot garlic chutney and garnished with pomegranate arils and spicy peanuts is a combination of different flavors and textures to form an extremely delicious and addictive snack. The crunchiness of the spicy peanuts, the unexpected burst of sweet and tart pomegranate juice and the heat from the chutneys will leave you wanting for more. I have adapted this recipe from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer.

This is another weekend dish that does not take long to prepare at all. As they were showing a marathon of House Hunters International on HGTV, one of my favorite shows ever. I quickly assembled these and the sat in front of the TV to see all the people buying beautiful homes across the world. It feels wonderful to live vicariously through the buyers pretending that I am buying a pied-a-terre in Paris, or a countryside home near the Alps or a cottage in the English countryside or maybe even a vacation home in the Caribbean. I love this show.

Vada Pav

Vada pav is the quintessential Indian burger. It is one of the most popular street foods in India especially Mumbai. In Mumbai you will see these everywhere; outside local train stations, near shopping areas, next to colleges etc.

It is quick, cheap, filling and most of all delicious and many a Mumbaite will have this for a quick lunch on the go. I practically lived off this stuff during my training in that city.

I have tried to create my favorite vada pav recipe. There are a lot of vada pav recipes on the web and they are all pretty much the same except for adding little more masalas or different chutneys. This is based on Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe . He is the king of Indian cuisine and I do love his recipes.


You can use dinner rolls or burger buns, in India they use the 'ladi pav'. If you are using the dinner rolls , you can make your vadas a little smaller, however, if you are using burger buns, like me, make the vadas slighly larger.

Try this popular Mumbai Burger and have it the mumbai-style with a hot cup of chai. This dish brings back so many fond memories.



Vada Pav