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6 Min
03/11/2025
When talking about sandwiches which are uniquely Indian, one has to gravitate to street-style cooking, no matter how great home chefs and restaurant dishes might be. The smoking stalls, with the sound of the metal tawa and utensils clacking, are where the magic happens. This is where the pavs or bread are toasted, the masala is mixed with other ingredients, and the sandwiches are assembled.
India may be known for its parathas and curries, but walk down the streets leading to offices, schools and colleges, you’ll see sandwiches that are unlike those abroad. Vendors serve everything from buttered, chutney-filled slices to buns stuffed with mashed potatoes, peanuts, and chutneys. Each bite of these local sandwiches is filled with local lore and flavours that are a reflection of the local culture and regional tastes. Popular in cities and small towns alike, these sandwiches are cheap, fast, and filling, invented as a means to feed office goers and travellers in a rush.
The Bombay Sandwich originated in Mumbai when street vendors catered to workers needing cheap, quick meals. It uses white‑bread slices (buttered), layered with vegetables such as tomato, onion, cucumber (sometimes beetroot or potato), and set apart by a green coriander‑mint‑chilli chutney and chaat masala. It became popular because it was satiating but affordable, easy to eat while on the move, and reflected Mumbai’s street‑food adaptation of Western bread with Indian flavours.
Bread malai toast is commonly seen as a quick snack or breakfast item in North India. It uses bread slices topped with fresh malai (thick cream or clotted milk cream) and sometimes onions and tomatoes in savoury versions, or sugar or cardamom in sweet versions. The bread is toasted until crisp, and the malai setting adds richness. Its popularity stems from being simple to prepare, using common dairy and bread ingredients, and offering a creamy, satisfying bite. It illustrates how bread is adapted into local Indian snack culture beyond typical sandwiches.
Dabeli comes from the Kutch region of Gujarat, which is why it also goes by the name of Kutchi dabeli. It was invented in the 1960s by Keshavji Gabha Chudasama (aka Kesha Malam). The name means ‘pressed’ in Gujarati, referring to how the bun is pressed after stuffing. The snack consists of a pav or bun toasted with butter, stuffed with a spiced mashed‑potato mixture (dabeli masala), topped with sweet tamarind chutney, garlic‑red‑chilli chutney, roasted peanuts, pomegranate seeds, and sev. It became popular because of its ‘chatpata’ taste and travelled from Gujarat into Maharashtra and beyond.
Rava Toast (also called sooji toast) is a variation where bread slices are topped with a homemade spread – a mixture of semolina (rava or sooji), yoghurt or cream, and chopped vegetables such as onion, tomato, capsicum, coriander and spices. The bread is then toasted on a tawa until crisp. This snack is popular for breakfast or tea‑time because it uses inexpensive ingredients, has a crunchy texture, and is quick to make. It shows how Indian cooks combine bread with local favourites like rava, curd, rather than just stuffing bread as in a classic sandwich.
The bread omelette (or anda‑bread sandwich) is thought to have originated in Mumbai. Here, the ‘pora’ (Marathi term for omelette) meets ‘pav’ (bread) to make a delicious breakfast or evening snack. Typically, an omelette is made with eggs, onions, green chillies, coriander, salt and pepper, placed between or on buttered bread slices, then toasted or pressed. It might be packed into one unit like a sandwich, sometimes sliced and then served with etcup. The dish is popular because it’s filling, quick to make, cheap, and easy to eat on the go.
The Dahi Sandwich is a lighter, cafe‑style snack found in many Indian cities. It typically uses bread slices (often whole wheat) with a spread or layer of hung curd or yoghurt mixed with chopped vegetables (corn, carrots, capsicum), seasoned with chaat masala or spices, and lightly toasted. Its popularity lies in being relatively healthy, vegetarian, and fitting the sandwich format while using curd (dahi) as the main ingredient – showing how Indian sandwich culture incorporates local dairy.
Tikka sandwich, be it paneer or chicken, is a more modern café and urban variant of Indian sandwich culture. It incorporates Indian flavours by using fillings such as paneer tikka or chicken tikka (marinated in spices) inside bread slices, often accompanied by chutneys, onions, capsicum, and lettuce, and then grilled or pressed. While exact documented origin details are sparser, it is part of the broader trend where traditional Indian flavours (tikka masala) enter sandwich formats in urban café settings. This sandwich is popular because of the masala, and it feels like an indulgence.
Indian sandwiches might use similar ingredients from the potato to the chaat masala, but even then, they are full of surprises. Like the Bombay sandwich packs fresh veggies and chutney into every bite, the dabeli hits with its sweet, spicy, crunchy punch, and even something as simple as rava toast or a bread malai toast tells the local story.