you have a small wallet....you have a craving for something very buttery /spicy/you want something to make sense with your thick cold coffee or you want another reason to go to "japan electronics" store on CG road,Ahmedabad....then the reason comes in the form of a squashed, toasted, generously buttered bread bun (pav) stuffed with a potato cutlet and served on a steel plate that has a poster red and a olive / sap green pudina chutney on one side of it.
There was always a crowd at this particular spot at municipal market in ahmedabad where locals and outsiders like us would regularly flock to eat vadapav.
while i introduce to you this little gujju/bambaiyya marvel...i should tell you that ahmedabad is a food city.you will find people in love with their food and it shows. on them and around them.there are all sorts of indigenous delicasies available on the side of the road, on streets, at junctions, in shops, in air conditioned showroom set ups, in restaraunts, in the night life etc.you have desi pizzas, hybrid varieties of burgers with imli chutney or proffessional looking "golas" (ice candies) with flavours that vary from raspberry to khata aam and choclate eclair.
when i first went to ahmedabad ...the vadapav was a mere 6 bucks and in the last vada pav i had there...the rate has rocketed to a 20. It was still cheap and watching those big hairy hands slather those pavs with ginormous bricks of butter was not beautiful but fascinating none the less.
It always ended with a thick cold coffee.or a chocolate shake.the kind that would almost never make it way up the straw and would choke you.......but it was the perfect comfort food.
Perfect for when u have come on a solitary shopping missison or a birthday treat where orders would fly back and forth over hours .......
The memory of good food evokes the taste in my palate again:)
