The Medu Wada aka Spicy American Doughnut (With sambar poured over the Wada)

The topic of this post is something I’ve loved since childhood. Yup you guessed it right, it a medu wada, with the sambar of course. Without sambar the medu wada is like bread without butter. I am a firm believer of the fact that sambar should compulsorily accompany a medu wada whilst chutney can be optional. Think of sambar as the wife and the chutney as the sis-in-law.

You’ll find it in every nook and corner of Mumbai. Each suburb has plenty of udipis that serve piping hot medu wadas. There are a few differences between the tastes of their sambars though. Like around matunga/Sion the Sambar is a lot less sweet when compared to the one found in Mulund/Ghatkopar. Also around matunga the sambar/chutney are replenished for free while around Mulund you do have to pay a nominal charge.

Then there comes service. I can safely say that Vishwa Bharati, located just outside Mulund Station has the fastest service. The time between placing your order and receiving your order is negligible. It actually takes more time to get change from your pocket then for them to serve you a piping hot plate of Medu Wada.

Now to Medu Wada etiquette. I for one believe that the sambar needs to be poured over the wada and not given separately in a bowl. There are two reasons for it, the first one being that it gives the wada an opportunity to soak in the sambar thus adding to the flavour. The second reason is rather simple, yet important. The quantity of sambar you get in bowl is much lesser than what you get when it’s poured over the wada. It comes into play especially when you’re having it around Mulund. I’ve even had an argument about this with a friend in a hotel in Matunga. When the argument turned a bit rough (as in rough words no punches) the waiter, for the gentleman he was got us additional sambar for free. That is when we realized that you get additional sambar/chutney for free in matunga.

I’ll delve a little deeper into the aforementioned argument some other time.That’s all for the time being folks, Will be back soon with some more thoughts.

Regards
Shijoshisha