Dabeli had a different name in its previous birth in Mumbai

The city of Mumbai is getting overcrowded with more and more restaurants. But its roadside food culture is showing no signs of dying down. In fact, the street food stalls are also growing at a numerous rates. Needless to say, most of them serve Mumbai’s traditional favourite Vada Pav and Bhajji Pav.

But another dish that has risen to fame over the last decade or so has been Dabeli. It is a variety where brown coloured potato masala is tucked into the Pav and is filled with pomegranate seeds and spicy peanuts. The Pav is then fried on a pan with butter and served with shev.

But it would be wrong to think that Dabeli has acquired fame only since last 10-12 years. If you happen to be a youngster who grew up after the 1990s, you might feel this is true. But that is not the case. The dish has been satisfying the tastebuds of Mumbaikars before the mid-1990s.

The only difference, however, was that it had a different name. In the early to mid-1990s, Dabeli was called Double Roti. I clearly remember buying Double Roti on various occasions then. It was only known by this name. The word ‘Dabeli’ was never heard of.

But then somewhere after the early-2000s, people selling it started calling it Dabeli. Obviously, the buyers also started addressing it with the same name. It tastes exactly like what it was called before – Double Roti. The only difference was that earlier the Pav wasn’t fried while now it was and it wasn’t served with shev. All other ingredients remained the same.

Recently, I and a friend got curious as to how the name of a popular dish got changed over the years. I tried asking a few friends who were well-versed with Mumbai’s street food culture but even they didn’t know an answer.

We were clueless until I struck up a conversation with a Dabeli wala at Versova in Andheri recently. The guy told me that the Dish originated in Gujarat. And he and many others like him migrated to Mumbai and, obviously, started selling it with its original name – Dabeli.

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This guy further said that he came to Mumbai around 16-17 years ago and has been selling Dabeli ever since. In other words, he has been doing this business in Mumbai since the early-2000s. This explains how the name changed from Double Roti to Dabeli from that period.

Curiously, I did a Google search to know the history of Dabeli. I came across a newspaper cutting in Quora. The article claims that the variety was invented by the late Mohanbhai Nathbava in Mandvi village in Kutch, Gujarat in 1964. It says that he started off by selling mashed potato Bhaaji in Pav and slowly transformed it into Dabeli, which translates into English as ‘pressed.’

So, we can assume that some fellow from Mumbai got inspired and started selling it as Double Roti.

But call it what you want, it won’t change the fact that Dabeli is delicious!

By: Keyur Seta

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