Mash · Mill Worker's Meal

Pav Bhaji

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It was invented as a fast lunch for 19th-century Mumbai textile mill workers who had too little time — and too little appetite for heavy food — before returning to the loom.

A thick mash of potatoes, tomatoes, peas and other vegetables is cooked down with a spiced pav bhaji masala on a large flat griddle, finished with a knob of butter, and served with soft pav rolls toasted on the same hot plate.

Why it's made this way: Street vendors created the dish in the 1850s from odds-and-ends vegetables to give mill workers a filling, quick meal that wouldn't weigh them down mid-shift.