What is the fried potato fritter called in the Indian street food vada pav?

The fried potato fritter in vada pav is called batata vada. It is a spiced mashed-potato ball coated in chickpea-flour batter, deep-fried, and tucked inside a pav bread bun.

Batata means “potato” in Marathi, while vada refers to a fried savory snack. The fritter is strongly associated with Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, where vada pav became a popular, inexpensive street food for workers and commuters.

To make batata vada, boiled potatoes are mashed and seasoned with ingredients such as mustard seeds, turmeric, garlic, ginger, green chili, curry leaves, and asafoetida. The mixture is shaped, dipped in gram-flour batter, and fried until crisp. Chutneys and fried green chili are typical accompaniments.

The names are easy to confuse: batata vada is the fritter, while vada pav is the complete sandwich-like snack. Kachori, pakora, and samosa are different fried foods, even though they may appear alongside vada pav at Indian street stalls.