Ultra-right wing potato sandwich launches in India
Shiv Sena, the ultra-right Hindu nationalist party in India, has launched a global brand of snack food called the Shiv Vada -- a sandwich containing deep-fried potato ball. They want to make it as popular as hamburgers.
Shiv Sena launches 'Shiv Vada'; to take it globalThe initiative is being seen as an attempt by the saffron party, which popularised the 'vada pav', staple diet of many a Mumbaikar, four decades ago, to establish rapport with the 'Marathi manoos', whose tilt in favour of Sena offshoot MNS, cost the party dearly in recent Lok Sabha polls.
"In foreign countries, burger is available 24-hours. Why can't vada pav be also available similarly," Uddhav said. The party, which has started a cooperative to encourage Marathi entrepreneurs, showcases 'Shiv Vada' as its first project under the new initiative, sources said. "To begin with, 25 Shiv Vada stalls would be operational in the city," they said.
(Image: Jumbo Vada Pav.jpg, CC-BY, Wikimedia Commons)
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That looks pretty good for a potato sandwich.
Sorry, need my protein. And besides, fried potato is not very nutritious.
Starch with starch on top? Seems like a rather dry sandwich idea to me.
Is it available with misogyny dressing or xenophobia sauce?
is that slaw on top? i would love to see the ingredients.
Deep-fried potato ball sandwiches? They've had those in Japan for years:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/su-lin/2308993948/
@#3 Agreed.
So much starch. Why not a soy burger patty?
I want DEEP-FRIED POUTINE!!!
Previously on boingboing:
'Globalization of snacks: Vada Pav (TM) to kick McDonalds' ass in India'
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/07/17/globalization-of-sna.html
Now then 'scousers'[Liverpudlians,with class] will
be happy to see that their contribution to the
gustatorial world 'The Chip Butty',is being touted
in India.I well remember my Gran making me this
delectable treat over 65 yrs ago.Two slabs of hot,
fresh out of the oven,bread,Slathered with butter,
preferably Danish.Filled with crisp french fries,a
dash of vinegar,salt and pepper or H.P.Sauce slap
'em together and munch.Ambrosia indeed.The chip
butty was extant in the north of England over 100
years ago,nice to see the sub-continent catching
up.
I love the Shiv Sena. They are so useful when people starts babbling about how peaceful Eastern religions are...
And, why are the promoting foreign values in India?! They are contributing to the rebirth of the Inca Empire! They are promoting Incan domination of the Food Chain!
@wizardofplum
The chip butty sounds delicious!
Butter, fries and bread are three of my favorite food groups along with cheese.
Carb on top of Carb. Great.
I don't see how this is all that different from kosher food, which is available all over.
#12, most religions weren't too worry about carbs when they came up with their arbitrary dietary rules. :)
Thanks, Avi!
that would be great with a big fat delicious hamburger patty right in the middle of it!!
This is Shiv Sena reacting to their opponents, the Congress Party launching their own kanda pohey. Which could now be called "Left-of-center spicy oniony thick rice flakes"
@Guidodavid:
Unlike certain followers of certain Abrahamic religions who can selectively quote chapter and verse from their holy books the parts that sanction slaughtering non believers, the Shiv Sena resort to no religious justification of their views because none exist.
Hinduism is the oldest religion still being practiced in the world- and might I add, the most chilled out, 'do or believe in your own thing' kind.
There's no concept of formal conversion- after all it did not rise to compete against other established faiths.If you want to act like a Hindu or follow certain customs you are free to do so- there's no mullah or rabbi or priest required to officially anoint you.
Consequently, there is NOTHING in any Hindu religious text that could even remotely be used to justify killing non believers; compare with the Bible or Koran which have enough quotes to selectively justify tolerance and brotherhood as well as intolerance and hatred towards non believers, depending on what you want to do.
The Shiv Sena are self appointed guardians of Hinduism; under Hindu philosophy no individual or entity can claim to represent everyone because of the pluralism inherent in its core.
Hindus have been at the receiving end of invasions and massacre by Muslim invaders (and colonization and forced conversion at the hands of European powers) for centuries.
And after Independence, the Congress party has unabashedly pursued policies of Muslim vote bank appeasement(too much to go into detail here) for their own gains.
The Shiv Sena have chosen to respond aggressively to these actual and perceived slights- and ironically ended up being just as bigoted and narrow minded as those whom they oppose.
Will the bun be made of meat?
@Lobster - what do you mean arbitrary? Oftentimes foods known to cause sickness were forbidden (e.g., pork, shellfish). Hindu belief that the cow is sacred is directly tied to the ancient reverance of Earth Mother/Earth Goddess, which is practically an archetype across the major civilizations. The cow is giver of sustenance via milk.
@GuidoDavid
Seconded. But even better are the Tamil-oppressing Buddhist bigots in Sri Lanka -- another great demonstration of how "Eastern" religions are just as vile as the "Western" ones -- they aren't Newage lovefests.
I for one welcome our new vegan overlords. I mean, basically it's a french fry sandwich. Sounds tasty and delish to me, especially if it's served with a side of ground beef sticks, deep fried and delicious. Om to the power of nom.
"The Shiv Sena have chosen to respond aggressively to these actual and perceived slights- and ironically ended up being just as bigoted and narrow minded as those whom they oppose."
Precisely my point. You can be a bigot no matter how good is your religion/absence of religion to start with. Monotheism usually is pretty gross and vindicative (Jealous god, no idols, etc), but to think that other dogmas can lead to a virtuous life automatically, that is to delude oneself.
Rexdude: Will you be my valentine?
A little off-topic: Mary Sue, that reminds me, I read recently, (here?) that a lot of vegans/vegetarians were outraged a few weeks ago when it was made public that McDonalds french fries are prepared using beef extract.
Now back to the original story.
@16: I doubt any religion is as peaceful as some of us wish. Even Buddhism had warrior monks and played an important role in bushido. I am sure violence have been committed in the name of Hinduism just like any other religion. Religion tends to form groups and when those groups feel threatened, they react. That reaction can include violence. I don't think religions are inherently evil. People do evil things, even those without religions.
Comatose51 saith: "I doubt any religion is as peaceful as some of us wish."
Perhaps, I do not know all wishes. But you might look up the principle of "ahimsa", which the sky-clad Jains and many Hindus and Bhuddists espouse.
Hey, you know what is really delicious? VEGGIE BURGERS WITH CHEESE AND BACON!!! Sorry, I just had to shout it out.
@Jonathan Badger
If you like seeing myths about the peacefulness of Buddhism shattered, you'll love Zen at War by Brian Victoria.
I wanna try that sandwich.
And as for the idea of Hindus being totally peaceful all the time, go watch Slumdog Millionaire. That scene early on with the Hindus rampaging through a Muslim district, killing nd setting fire to people and buildings? real event. maybe 20 years ago.
Every relygion has it's dark points somewhere. The trick is to not be one of them yourself. Same if you aren't religious.
OK, but it's deep fried in pork fat.
Either way, fried egg sandwiches are the best sandwiches in the universe.
there is NOTHING in any Hindu religious text that could even remotely be used to justify killing non believers
And yet, the Bhagavad-gita, the most sacred and beloved of Hindu texts, consists of Krishna talking Arjuna into murdering his grandfather, uncles and cousins on the battlefield after Arjuna has demurred on grounds of humanity and compassion. Not so ahimsa.
I can haz chip buttie?
Vada Pav is delicious.
Is it actually a good idea to promote potatoes as an Indian alternative to (western) hamburgers?
Eventually potatoes are from the West Indies and not from India... (please excuse this cheap pun and its regional inaccuracy)
Fascist food nation!
Vada Pau (patty in bun) has been a popular street food in Bombay for as long as I can remember. It's nether left nor right, just spicy and mmmmmmm...
That would be even better with Freedom Fries.
You can get falafel around the world without having to support a violent theocratic political party :-) And it's got more protein in it, and it's still potentially crunchy-fried and spicy, though too often it's actually re-microwaved and lame.
And bpratt@#36, it goes well with free-as-in-beer fries, or regular fries, and here in California there's usually Sriracha sauce around.
Tom Hale @ #25, vegetarians have been annoyed at MacDonald's french fries for decades. They used to fry them in beef fat, but even when they stopped that, the frozen fries have included beef fat to maintain some of the taste. Most years they've been pretty upfront about it, at least if people asked, though it's obviously not one of their advertising pitches. When they switched to their new "no longer using trans-fats" "healthier" frying a few years ago, many of us had hoped they'd also stopped with the beef fat, but no, it was just changing the oil. Burger King, on the other hand, used to have chicken fat in their fries, but I think they've stopped that(?), and they also had onion rings which I like better, as well as uninspired-but-edible veggie burgers.
Vincent: You know what they put on French fries in Mumbai instead of ketchup?
Jules: What?
Vincent: Curry.
Jules: Goddamn.
Vincent: I've seen 'em do it, man. They fuckin' drown 'em in that shit.
#13 Anon-Well now you've opened the door to almost
unthinkable delights-sprinkle some Stilton cheese
the stinkier the better-or thinly sliced Havarti-
jalepeno cheese Add when chips are very hot to
facilitate melting.Do not use production plant pap
that masquerades as bread,use real hands-on bread
made by ethnic bakers, such as Jewish or Italian.
I have used Roti, cooked fresh before my eyes at
the local Trini cafe.Rush it home while it's hot
hot,hot.wit der Sparrow man chirping in de back
dere.Sucking on a Carib wile de wumman mek me me
floaty Roti.She be Hindu too.Got to go, me wetting
meself.
Wizard, you are making me choke on my hungry drool! I will send a lizard to steal your pointy hat if you don't stop.
All politics aside, that looks really really delicious.
A quandary: As a meat-hater and potato/starch/carb-lover, I really want to eat this sandwich really bad. On the other hand, I'm not really down with supporting anything right-wing in any way. The quandary will probably be solved by the fact that I won't have easy access to one of these sandwiches any time soon.
Ingredients:
• 4 Boiled Potatoes
• 2 Cups besan
• 2 Garlic flakes
• 1 Ginger
• 2 Chopped onions
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Turmeric powder
• 1 Cup coriander
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying
• 5 Pav
How to make Vada Pav:
• Add turmeric powder, salt to besan and make a mixture.
• Add water to the mixture and make batter of medium consistency.
• Peel the potatoes and mash it by hand.
• Make a paste of garlic and ginger.
• Add garlic ginger paste,coriander to mashed potato.
• Make small balls of mashed potato mixture.
• Heat the oil.
• Dip each ball in the batter and fry the balls till they turn golden brown.
• Split the pav keeping the base intact.
• Place the vada into it.
• Vada Paav is ready.
@#44-Lauren O.Oh,Oh.OH.When you allow a political
entity to dictate what you should or should not eat,when Chip Butty's become a rallying call for
the demented element in our collective society to be Ugh! any wing-right-left-or frigging-upside down.Get a life,it's only a delicious munchie it
has no connection with the great unwashed in Mumbai.It is blue collar fodder,the ultimate in
tasties,try it and live love!
or just go to your nearest Local (train) station, and grab a quick vada pav
only INR 5.00!!
~$udhi :)
@ # 42 an a noony mouse.See you Jimmy! dinnae even dare to mock The Wiz 'cos I'll hex yer wee
wullie intae a scalie lizard's tunkie and then
see if can git onny heed,ya wee totty-moosie
lucky you-all, lookit I found:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/foc/
@25 Tom Hale
Regarding the french fries with beef extract thing, when MacDonalds first came to India, there was a huge hew and cry, especially form PETA and Maneka Gandhi and they had to prove that they were not using it anymore. I am surprised that this was revealed only a few weeks ago!
@32 Antinous: I think the concept of "ahimsa" has been misunderstood by many because Mahatma Gandhi's use of the word differed a bit from its original context in the Vedas. Ahimsa literally means non-violence and so the focus is on avoiding pain and suffering, not death. So while the Vedas espouse ahimsa too, they never say that people have to be vegetarians or cannot kill others. It is very strange to hear it and when I first came across this explanation I was ttoally struck by how apologist it was, but I came around understanding it. It's like all things Hindu, kinda fatalistic; you can't change the fate of humans, therefore there will be death and murder, so what you can do is try to avoid pain and harm.
-anin
this should enrage on a dozen levels:
http://www.media.desicolours.com/2009/june/burger.jpg
Oh ho, those wacky Shiv Senas. Phir bhi, if I had to chose politically between poha and vada pav, that's a toughie. I'd probably have to pick poha (as long as cornflakes mixture is available).
@#45 Takuan, that's interesting, I never knew it had besan in it. I guess there is one food made w/ besan that I can stomach, after all. You forgot the pudina chutney and ketchup, though!
Get a life,it's only a delicious munchie it
has no connection with the great unwashed in Mumbai.
It does if my buying the sandwich gives funds directly to an ultra-right-wing party.
And didn't your mother ever teach you how ironic it is to tell someone to "get a life" over the Internet?
Time for a re-post?
The Five Principal Examples of Unintentional Irony.
1) Anyone who tells other people to grow up, hasn't.
2) Anyone who tells other people to relax, can't.
3) Anyone who tells other people to get over it, hasn't.
4) Anyone who tells other people to stop whining, won't.
5) Anyone who tells other people to get a life, doesn't have one.
This is an authoritative recipe for making your own Vada Pav!:
http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2005/08/imbb-18-no-fear-of-frying.html
http://japanesefood.about.com/od/potato/r/potatokorokke.htm
welcome to diabetes land
Freedom balls.
That's what you have when you don't wear underwear, Tomaq.
Here is their party leader:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/quick_gun_murugan