Pav Bhaji

Yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi, or Ganesh’s Birthday, when just about every Hindu in the world gathers at the Ganesh temple a few blocks away from my home in Jaipur (or at least every Hindu in the area… the queue for the temple stretched far and wide on every side of the temple, all day and all night.) Makeshift shops selling Laddoos (sweets made out of flour and sugar, cooked in ghee and rolled into balls) lined the streets near the temple for an offering to Ganesha and to share with friends and family.

Today, a huge procession of elephants, trucks, dancers, horses, and floats displaying the various Hindu gods and goddesses made an annual trek from the Ganesh temple by the Moti Doongri fort in Jaipur to another temple in the surrounding hills 30 miles away. 

I celebrated Ganesha Chathurti by finally diving into some street food. I went with Pav Bhaji, easily my new favorite food.

Pav Bhaji, a Maharashtra dish, originated in Mumbai in the 1850s. Mill workers used to have too short of a lunch break for a full meal, so the vendors concocted a spicy blend of various items on the menu into one potato-based blended vegetable curry, aka the Bhaji. Pav, a fluffy roll that is coated with butter and fried, replaced the customary roti or rice to eat with the curry. This was quicker to eat and lighter than the average meal, necessary considering the workers had to jump back into hard labor. After its initial introduction into the mill scene, Pav Bhaji caught on throughout Mumbai and eventually made its way into the hearts and stomachs of city-dwellers around India, becoming a popular street food meal.

So now that you know this heavenly feast exists, you can be jealous that I will definitely be eating this every day (a perfect mid-afternoon snack… especially since dinner isn’t served until 8:30 or 9.) Stay tuned for the recipe, my host mom makes a mean Pav Bhaji and I am determined to bring this part of India home with me.