Panipuri
Panipuri is a snack associated with the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent consisting of a deep-fried spherical puri shell, hollowed out for a filling and dipped in flavoured waters. Panipuri is primarily a street food and is part of the chaat category of light snacks. It is commonly filled with some combination of potatoes, chickpeas, spices, and chutney. The flavoured waters, or pani, are typically a spicy coriander leaf or mint chutney called teekha pani and a sweet tamarind chutney called meetha pani. A few centimetres in diameter, it is a finger food eaten in one bite. Panipuri is the most common street food in the Indian subcontinent, and it is popular across the region, in both urban and rural areas.
Several variations exist, using different ingredients in the filling, waters, and dough. Cities have local variations, such as Delhi-style golgappe, which is filled with both potatoes and black chickpeas; Kolkata-style phuchka, which uses mashed potatoes and has a sour and citrusy, rather than sweet, flavour; and Mumbai-style panipuri, which uses ragda. In Bangladesh, phuchka uses a filling of potato-based chotpoti and is garnished with eggs. In Uttar Pradesh, where the dish is known as pani ke batashe, many flavours of pani are used. Primarily associated with North India, panipuri is also popular in South India, sometimes altered for regional tastes. Vendors of the dish are predominantly from North India.
The origin of panipuri is unknown. The dish spread across India in the 20th century, resulting in variations using local ingredients. Beginning in the 1990s, chefs developed non-traditional variations, including vodka panipuri and panipuri served with shot glasses. Panipuri inspired trends in the 2020s, when the COVID-19 pandemic inspired people to make panipuri at home, and vendors went viral for serving non-traditional versions. As a result of migration from the Indian subcontinent, panipuri is served at restaurants globally.
Names
The Hindi word pani means 'water', referring to the watery chutneys used in the dish, and puri refers to rounds of deep-fried dough. The term panipuri is used in most parts of India, including Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, as well as in Nepal. It is also the most common term in other parts of the world that are home to the Indian diaspora.The terms golgappa and phuchka have also entered English usage. Phuchka is an onomatopoeia for the sound of eating the food. It is used in Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Indian states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam, and West Bengal, including in Kolkata. According to The Business Standard, this term originated in Assam. The dish is called golgappa in Delhi and surrounding parts of North India, including Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Variations are known by many other regional names in the Indian subcontinent. In Rajasthan, parts of Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, the term is pani ke batashe, meaning 'spherical snacks with water'. In Chhattisgarh, southern Jharkhand, parts of Odisha, and Telangana, it is called gup chup, which may be an onomatopoeia. The term phulki is used in Nepal, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, and pakodi is used in Madhya Pradesh and inland Gujarat. The term padaka is specific to Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh. The translation water balls is sometimes used in Britain.
Preparation and serving
Ingredients and preparation
Panipuri is based on puri, a fried wheat flatbread. The puri used in panipuri is made using a thin circle of dough, about in diameter, which inflates during frying to form a hollow spherical shell that holds its shape. It is crispier than regular puri, which is achieved by using oil instead of water in the dough, limiting gluten formation. The puri itself may be referred to as a pani puri, golgappa puri, or phuchka puri.Each puri is punctured with a finger, then filled, often with potatoes or chickpeas, along with chutneys. The filled puri is then quickly dipped in watered-down chutneys, known as pani, which are often chilled. Panipuri is a finger food and is eaten in one bite; taking multiple bites is seen as improper.
Regional variations differ based on ingredients in filling or the pani, as well as the type of flour used in the puri. The common feature of all variations is the puri base. The puri is most commonly made of semolina flour, though it may also be made of wheat flours, including maida and atta, or with a mix of semolina and atta. The use of atta is more traditional, but many producers favour semolina for its longer shelf life. Puris using semolina are also thicker and denser, making them crunchier and less prone to breaking from the water.
The filling may contain mashed potato, chopped onion, peas, bean sprouts, chilli powder, and chaat masala, sometimes with the addition of mint or tamarind chutney. The panis are typically a spicy green sauce known as teekha pani, containing herbs like mint or coriander, along with a red sauce known meetha pani made of tamarind, similar to saunth chutney. Different flavours of pani are used in some places, including lemon or asafoetida. The waters can include a garnishing of boondi, made of fried chickpea flour, or spices such as star anise. Many mass-produced panipuris use cheaper ingredients for pani, such as citric acid.
It is classified as a chaat, a broad category of small snacks combining multiple ingredients, which are consumed in the early evening and typically as street food. The hollow puris used in panipuri are also used in variations such as sev puri, in which the potato filling is topped with sev ; dahi puri, which adds dahi to the potato filling; and pakodi puri, filled with small pakodas. A deflated version of the puri is used for papri chaat and bhel puri.
Panipuri combines sweet and sour flavours, and the astringency and cooling of tamarind may balance against spiciness. There is also a contrast between the crispy exterior and the soft filling. The flavour profile of panipuri—combining sourness, saltiness, and heat—is similar to other chaats and other Indian street foods.
Serving
Panipuri is typically served by street food vendors, though versions also exist at restaurants. Street vendors of the dish, known as panipuri wallas, each use their own recipes. They prepare panipuri with tweaks according to each customer's order, such as using different levels of spiciness. Panipuri is served one at a time and may be assembled by the vendor or the customer; culinary presenter Padma Lakshmi wrote in her 2016 memoir, "Nowadays, you’re often presented with the components and required to assemble each bite yourself... Pani puri is never as good as when a master makes it." Some vendors serve panipuri directly from their hands to the hands of the customer, which is not done with other street foods, while some vendors use leaf plates. People consume panipuri quickly—to prevent it from becoming soggy—and then leave, unlike with other street foods. A round of panipuris may end with one served without the water, which is known as dry or sookha.When served at restaurants, the dish may be served with the filling on the side, for the customer to add, or already filled in the puri, though the pani is always added after serving. As a street food, panipuri is rarely eaten at home. However, among the Marwari people, panipuri and other chaats may also be homemade.
Panipuri is a particularly popular snack in the summer. As a light snack, it is popular in the evening. It is also sometimes served as wedding food. According to cultural scholar Bhaskar Mukhopadhyay, panipuri is an example of a food that is eaten for fun rather than practical value.
Safety
As panipuri is a popular street food, its safety has been seen as a public health issue. Panipuri is a perishable product whose ingredients may get contaminated with bacteria. The risk of foodborne illness is caused by poor hygiene during preparation and serving as well as contamination of water or raw vegetables as these are not cooked before consumption. Hygenic risks occur as vendors often store the water used for panipuri in open containers and serve the dish by hand. Studies analysing panipuri served by street vendors have found bacteria such as E. coli, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, and Listeria, as well as fungal contaminants. A 2024 analysis by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India found that 22% of samples of panipuri in Karnataka were below standards due to substances classified as unsafe or carcinogenic. The same year, this agency found 16% of samples in the city of Chennai to be unsafe for consumption. To avoid health risks, many street vendors use mineral water, and the fast food chain Haldiram's serves the dish using a sealed bag of puris.Variations
Regional variations
Eastern Indian subcontinent
The phuchka made in the eastern Indian subcontinent is distinct from panipuri as the puris are made of atta, the green water is especially spicy, and the tamarind water is sour rather than sweet. The latter is known in Bengali as tok jol. The typical filling uses mashed potatoes or boiled Bengal gram chickpeas. In West Bengal, phuchka is often flavoured with gondhoraj lime, which gives Kolkata-style phuchka its distinctive flavour. This style is filled with mashed potatoes, green chilli, and spices. They usually do not use chickpeas, and may instead use white peas. The atta puris are slightly larger and much thinner than most panipuris. According to chef Vikramjeet Roy, many Kolkatans prefer for the snack to be more fragile. Some vendors in Kolkata serve a sweet pani in addition to the sour pani. Doi phuchka is a variation of phuchka that contains dahi, making it similar to the dahi puri of Mumbai.In Bangladesh, phuchka is filled with chotpoti, containing potatoes and onions, and topped with shredded eggs. It is served with tamarind water. Phuchka and panipuri are distinct items in Bangladesh, with the latter using smaller puris and a filling of potatoes, chickpeas, and peas; Bangladeshi doi phuchka uses the same filling, topped with dahi, beets, and sev, rather than flavoured waters. Bhelpuri, in Bangladesh, is a variant of panipuri that uses larger puris, topped with potato, tomato, and cucumber.