Decades ago, a recipe for sabudana vada sealed the fate and fortune of Prakash. The restaurant, in the central Mumbai district of Dadar, is synonymous with the Maharashtrian specialty, which is made by mixing translucent, presoaked sago pearls -- extracted from sago palm trees and similar to tapioca -- with cumin, green chilies, potatoes and crushed peanuts, and then frying the rolled contents into balls. At Prakash, the fist-size vadas -- a catchall term used in many Indian languages for fried dumplings or fritters -- come crispy and crunchy on the outside, with a soft and sticky inner layer, and are accompanied by a peanut-and-yogurt chutney. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]