Many Malaysians have tried vadai, also known as vada or vadeh, but perhaps some of us are unaware that there are many variants to the savoury Indian snack.
Last Sunday (1st October), a popular vadai chain store from Singapore, The Original Vadai, opened their Malaysian flagship store in Bukit Bintang. The KL store serves the same menu as its Singaporean counterpart, offering an array of vadai flavours, including their best-selling prawn, onion and shrimp paste.
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The new store has also been featured in a few local media, including MalaysianSpeaks, who posted a review on their TikTok. According to the host, the vadais from the store were fluffy and flavourful. While the video had many interested in visiting the store for a taste of their vadai, some Malaysians had mixed reactions to the unfamiliar version of the snack.
According to many Malaysians, the vadai from the store looked more like cucur udang, or prawn fritters, because of the texture. One comment even said the vadais are more similar to doughnuts, while another said the snack needs to have a specific type of dhal to be considered a vadai. It is worth noting that the typical vadai sold in Malaysia has a chunkier texture because of the legumes used for the batter.
Many other comments, even the admin for the TikTok account, came to the store’s defence, saying there are many types of vadais available and the ones sold in the store are the owner’s own recipe. According to The Original Vadai’s official website, founder Jumana Rani experimented with the traditional vadai recipe to be more suitable for Singaporean taste buds, resulting in the unconventional texture.
What do you think about the vadais from The Original Vadai? Would you like them more than the traditional version?
Source: TikTok, The Original Vadai
