Wada Paav

First the run. 7.09KM on the roads. I am so thrilled and it felt sooo good. 54:19:42 was my timing. This is about 10 minutes more than my purported 7k when I run loops in KNP. (I suspect the KNP loop is probably shorter. This run served as a good calibration run.) I am satisfied with my run today. Started off at 7:00 AM sharp - no kids to drop off, no other early morning distractions.... just the road and I.

The run is a loop from Roopali hotel on FC Road, up BMCC Road, up Senapati Bapat Road, turn at the University signal, past ESquare, down Ganeshkhind Road, turn into Ferguson College Road, and all the way to Good Luck Chowk, up Bhandarkar Road and stop at IIPM. The distance is 7.09 KM per this really nifty tool on the web called Map My Run.
Map My Run is a mashup of Google Earth/Maps and some really nice route mapping tools (The author does not have any implicit or explicit interest/shares/stocks in nor is he paid by Mapmyrun for this, though, he would be more than willing to plug for money :o))

Here is the route (Have been waiting to do this since the day I found out about this feature)

Reached the Pyramid store on Senapati Bapat Road in 19 minutes, slaving over a small hill and a fairly big incline up and down near Symbiosis, End of Senapati Bapat Road was 27 minutes (better than my last run many moons ago which I remember as 35 minutes), passed ESquare at 31:30, reached the far end of Ferguson College Road at 40:30, past the start point of Roopali at 52:19 for a end timing of 54:19:46. Phew.

Changed out of my wet togs and went to KNP to cooldown. 5 loops walking, stretching, touching my toes seemed to be enough.

Now the wada paav
I am a sucker for this very accessible Indian "burger". Mashed potatoes spiced with minced green chillies, chopped coriander, ginger, garlic covered with chickpea flour batter and fried is the wada. The paav is a bun .. very rustic no sesame seeds or the like. Slice the bun, add some dry garlic chutney, some sweet saucy chutney, enclose the wada and mmmmmmm.....bite into 100% authentic Indian street fare... One is never enough so I end up ordering at least a pair.

This post is inspired by my latest wada paav adventure.
Jumbo King opened just down the street from where I work yesterday. Unable to resist (the no potatoes diet be damned), I took 5 of these packaged goodies home. Wrapped in slick Jumbo King adorned wax paper, the bun is slightly longer than the traditional paav, the wada somewhat bigger. The garlic chutney is already rubbed into the bun and the sweet chutney (amchur, garam masala, etc. in a sweetish base) is packaged in small plastic sachets. The wada paav was good and as usual I demolished two, hankering for more.

An interesting tid-bit: August 23rd is now World Vada Paav Day, started by the founders of this chain that claims to bring western food models to the quintessential Mumbai food. My other favourite tid-bit is you can order wada paav in one of the ritzy swanky 5 star coffee shops in Pune.

Would be interesting to see how this desi "burger" chain fares in Pune. The Wada Paav of course RULES.