DNA Mumbai Anniversary: Say B for burger

During any celebration at a fast food outlet or a food court, there’s one snack item that is mostly always on the list – burgers. A few decades ago, they were a vague concept that seemed as elusive as truffles or Swiss chocolates.

You were either fortunate enough to experience them while travelling abroad or had to make do with a local adaptation – the vegetable cutlet placed in a sliced bun with some onion and tomato slices plus tomato ketchup. 

When the burger chains first opened up outlets in India, the response was overwhelming because let’s face it, we were making do with a photocopy that was nowhere near as tasty as the original. 

Taking Indian tastes into consideration, they too made their menu more appealing to local tastes. So one could have the original and the localised version also, one after the other. 

For some people, the story ended there. Each year the big chains added new combinations and patties became almost like the menu at a Punjabi restaurant with spicy chole, paneer tikka and other variants becoming a bridge between those craving something ‘different’ and those wanting the familiar taste of comfort food.’

New Vistas

However, on the sidelines, there was a parallel industry catering to a different category of foodies – the daily commuters looking for something on munch on while waiting for the bus or auto rickshaw early morning, way before the fast food joints open. Well, the local farsan shops and other vendors decided to borrow a leaf from their book and suddenly the more affordable ‘pav’ started competing with the burger bun. 

The basic vada pav had existed since a very long time but it was spruced up with the application of butter, green chutney, onion slices and tomato ketchup. Punjabi samosa pav was added to the list. 

These were the front runners in an early morning breakfast that unexpectedly mushroomed out of proportion. 

Given the initial price range being within Rs 10, just about everything edible in a farsan shop that could be consumed by itself, without a pav, (and had been for so long) suddenly found itself being stuffed within a hastily sliced (sometimes pried open with bare fingers) pav. From potato pakoras to onion pakoras, methi pakoras and of course, mix pakoras, the list grew. Options of sweet, spicy, dry garlic chutney and fried chillies made for lethal combinations. Finely chopped onions were also available. At this stage, a niche item that was almost considered an exclusively evening snack – the dabeli – entered the fray. 

So from a ‘patty in a bun’ the concept became ‘anything tasty put within a bun’ be it a semi-solid filling like the cooked vegetable within the dabeli or exotic vegetable fillings like paneer makhanwala with no-onion and garlic variants for Jains. 

During the burger battles for attracting consumers, a niche item that was almost considered an exclusively evening snack – the dabeli – entered the fray. 

Ironically, there was no patty as such but the soft filling packed inside a pav (twice with chutneys and other condiments as per the ritual) looked like a patty from a distance and so the concept took off.   

Rapid Evolution

The slightly round shaped but softer pav with two chutneys, a soft vegetable filling with pomegranate seeds and or grated coconut, stuffed with chopped onions and spicy peanuts served at normal temperature suddenly found itself being shallow fried in butter on a tawa. The addition of cheese became the first option. Chinese versions like Manchurian and Schezwan were also explored using sauces swiped from the adjacent vendor.

Revised Rules   

The next step unexpectedly was a salvo that nobody had seen coming. The winter favourite undhiyu was found being nicely placed in pavs and sold in the early morning. Apparently the dabeli’s success had been interpreted to mean that one didn’t need a patty anymore; anything in a pav was par for the course. To early morning commuters, consuming the oil oozing undhiyu in a dry pav instead of equally oily puris made a lot more sense from a practical point of view as well. 

This in effect meant taking on the ‘puri bhaji’ vendors but for some reason, the loyalists remained faithful to that concept. Moreover, with undhiyu available just for a few months in a year and that too during the winter season, the threat perception was much less and posed no cause for concern to the year-round puri bhaji vendors as such. 

Fast Forward

Gradually there emerged a scenario where everything had changed. The fast food chains began to open early to catch the breakfast crowd (offering egg in a bun), smartly pre-empting another niche snack that was almost considered an exclusively evening snack – omelette pav and anda pav. For some inexplicable reason, these vendors dealing in egg preparations are only visible after sunset, making the de facto ‘vampires’ of the food vendor community. However, the bun maska and bun jam sold by roadside vendors thankfully remained unaffected by all these changes and continue to be a preferred option.          

The vada pav business got more organised and local brands started setting up proper outlets with facilities to sit and grab a bite or takeaways on the lines of the multinationals. They began expanding their menu and offering Indian drinks like lassi, nimbu-pani and juices as accompaniments. 

As we reflect on the past, the Rs 10 format that once existed is gone forever, except for a stray random seller with the basic pav-chutney-vada format. 

Today the global chains offer entry-level pricing and combo deals for two within Rs 100 while the local brands can offer you a menu with options that would cost two to three times as much, appealing to your patriotism. 

The bottom line; ultimately it’s your mood and memories of the last meal savoured that decide where you end up consuming the popular ‘food in a bun’ offering.

TANGIBLE CHANGES

Ironically, the mainstay of burgers in India earlier, the tomato ketchup in which we drowned the bun and cutlet combo-became an accessory that was neglected, sometimes wasted and gradually people started keeping it aside for the next day’s lunch box. Mayonnaise and mustard sauce along with a long list of differently coloured spreads and pastes in jars and squeeze bottles.