Panipuri

Pani Puri

Origin
Alternative name(s)	Phuchka, Gup Chup, Paani Poori, Pani ke Bataashe, Palodi, Gol Gappa
Place of origin	India
Region or state	India
Details
Course	snack
Main ingredient(s)	flour, spiced water, onion, potatoes, chickpeas

The golgappa (also known as panipuri पानीपूरी,  pānīpūrī , pani ke bataashe, Marathi: पाणीपुरी pāṇīpurī, Gujarati: પાણી પુરી pāṇī purī, term used in Western India, phuchka (Bengali: ফুচকা), or gup chup (Oriya: ଗୁପଚୁପ୍)) is a popular street snack in India. It is a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of water, tamarind, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion and chickpeas. It is small enough to fit completely in one's mouth.

The name gol gappa refers to the fact that crisp sphere (gol) is placed in the mouth and eaten (gappa) at one time, without biting. Pani comes from the Hindi word for water and puri (or poori) is the name of an Indian bread made by frying dough in oil. It is known as bataasha in the western region of Uttar Pradesh. Bataasha means something which gets smashed with application of a slight pressure; the bataasha gets smashed as soon as it is placed inside the mouth. It is known as phoochka in Eastern Indian states like Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal and in Bangladesh, because of the bursting sound in the mouth when it is eaten, called gup chup in Orissa and South Jharkhand, North Bihar and Phulki in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh. In several parts of Gujarat and Kutch. It’s commonly known as pakodi (પકોડી), not to be confused with pakoda.

History

The puritan originated from the Magadh region of India, present day South Bihar where it is also known as phoolki. The English meaning of golgappa is "watery indian bread" or "crisp sphere eaten." Literary mentions suggest that it may have originated from Banares.

The Pani Ke Bataashe in Lucknow are hot favourite among the top-level politicians of India across the political parties to the likes of Lal Krishna Advani, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj. The cine-stars from Mumbai film industry are also visitors to the famous chaat-shop at Ganeshganj in Lucknow. Hathras in Western Uttar Pradesh (India) is world famous for its Padake. The streets of this famous literary town are lined with scores of vendors selling Patakhe on small pushcarts.

In West Bengal and specifically Kolkata, Phuchka is considered to be the king of this variety of snacks, compared to its cousins like golgappas or panipuris. The filling is made by lightly mashing boiled potatoes with black salt, salt, some spices, a generous portion of tamarind pulp (made by mashing ripe tamarind in tamarind water), chilli (powder/chopped/boiled & pasted). The tamarind water Tetul Jol is made by mixing tamarind and spices/ salt and making a light and tart liquid with water. At some places like Deshpriya Park, a very famous variety is made with sour curd, and called Dahi (curd) Phuchka. Onions are never used in Phuchkas.

In Mumbai, 100 pani puri roadside vendors were forced to shut down after a video of a vendor urinating in a serving vessel went viral. The incident brought out public calls for health teams to check for hygiene by vendors.

Names

Its popular names and the area where it is known by this name are:

Name	Region
Gol gappa, Water balls	New Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bihar
Pani ke bataashe	Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh
Panipuri	Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra , Tamilnadu
Phuchka	Bangladesh, West Bengal (India)
Gup chup	Chhattisgarh, Odissa
Pakodi	Gujarat
Phulki	Madhya Pradesh

Presentation

Panipuri stall

Typically, 5–8 panipuris are served with in a portion on a triangular "plate" made from dry sal leaves. Some places offer panipuris pre-made on a whole plate, but the popular way for them to be served is one-at-a-time from a road-side vendor. Customers hold a small plate and stand around the server's cart. The server then starts making one panipuri at a time and gives one to each individual. Panipuri servers have to remember each customer's preferences such as sweetened pani, more filling or extra onions, for example. The server must keep count of how many panipuris each person has had. Panipuri servers are renowned for remembering choices and numbers served, even when serving an entire crowd.

Traditionally, panipuris are eaten by placing the entire puri into the mouth in one go and biting into it. This releases a barrage of tastes and textures. Panipuris may be finished off with a cup of the pani, sweetened or made tarter to taste.

Variations

While many regions in India have their own variations of the panipuri, the most famous ones are from Kolkata, called 'Phuckha'.

In Lucknow, this mouth-watering dish is known as "Pani ke bataashe", which means a crispy round dish having spicy water inside. A hole is made using a thumb in the "Bataasha" and a small amount of boiled peas is filled inside it and then the "Bataasha" is dipped in the spicy water or "Pani". In the Lucknow region the Pani is prepared using mint, tamarind, asafoetida (hing), black pepper, red chili powder and salt. At Hazaratganj in Lucknow you can savour Paanch Swaad Ke bataashe which means the bataashe are served with five differently tasting Pani one after another.

In most parts of India, a panipuri is made with flavoured water. Some examples are imli ka pani (tamarind in water), nimbu ka pani (lemon juice in water), pudine ka pani (mint in water) and khajur ka pani (dates mixed in water). In West Bengal, Orissa, Mithilanchal part of Bihar and the southern part of Jharkhand, many people enjoy panipuris containing no sweet but with tamarind juice and spicy mashed potato.

In parts of Bihar, however it is also served along with "patta chat" comprising khesiya dried channa Black gram (Kala Chana) or dried yellow peas coated with hot freshly grinded green masalas => recipe for which is basically dried black, yellow or green bengal gram that is soaked in water for a minute and then washed in running water immediately and put in a frying pan/kardahi with shallow filled with mustard oil reaching smoky point preferably cooked in chinese wok style, and the moment it starts giving/releasing pleasant sweet smell/scent/aroma/odour/fragrance/parfumes then add the dry green masalas comprising onion, garlic, ginger, green chilli, black & red pepper powder {curry leaves & a pinch of asfoetida optional} grounded/pounded in the puree/paste form in the rough style once the spices are evenly mixed remove it from flame let it cool, this can be stored as snacks too for upto a month. Alternatively, this at times is replaced with Ghugaeni alias Ghoogini. It is then served with muri (sometimes spelled mouri)(mur-mure\kurmura\churmura or Muhdhi), and at times with hot onion pakoda/bonda or Uggani/Goli Baje\Wadaieyan Batata vada/ambode/Maddur vade/Sabudana vada style bhajiya Fritter of dried chick peas dumplings made up with onion slices/julienned with grated green chilli & potato or garlic. Make small balls with this mixture (a little smaller than a golf ball), flatten them a bit, and set aside. Fry these flattened pieces in the smoky hot oil, until they turn golden brown. Then, put it in diluted watery gravy in garam masala seasoning and cooked in cverd lid just ot make them tender for a while, in the traditional eastern Indian style & thereafter, kachalou is prepared with par-boiled blanch-cooked peeled potatoes are cut in slices, cubes or crumbled with sour hung/thick curd and mixed with chat masala & jeera namak (grounded black rock salt along with roasted cumin seeds, white & red pepper powder apportioned and mixed in 3:2:1 ratio) in a very pungent manner and then diluted with (dried mango powder)amchoor/tamarind & pudina/dhaniya water as per own taste bud. These all go very well as a filling in the Pani Puri.

In Jamshedpur, a mixture of hot "chole" made of yellow peas, boiled smashed potato, lots of fresh onion pieces, green chillies, tamarind juice and spices are mixed to make stuffing for golgappe. There are two types of golguppe: with tamarind water (a.k.a. phulki) or dry (aka; papadi).

One needs to break open the golgappe and stuff the mixture into it and put tamarind water in it. Papadi are those golgappe which are mostly flat. All the stuffing goes on the top of the papadi.

In Maharashtra, by contrast, the recipe is usually spicier and contains boondi or sprouts in addition to other ingredients. Panipuris are also eaten with curd and different types of masalas such as onion, sev (a type of besan vermicelli without any spices & seasoning)|(a fried snack shaped like thin noodles made from besan flour), and mixture (a mix of different types of fried snacks mixed together) or Bhujia along with available seasonal nuts, as the base of the snack.

The panipuri is also a off-beat recent entrant delicacy in north-eatern as well in southern part of India popularized by Bollywood movies and the heavy influence following of neighbouring Northern Indian states traditions of cuisine culutural pot-pourrie. It is blamed for an increase on stomach ache there.

Cultural references

A monthly children's magazine, Golgappa, was published from 1970 in Delhi. Until recent decades, golgappas were eaten mainly by children.