Pani puri, golgappa, phuchka, pani batashi – are all names referring to a food, a feeling. The popular street food is one of the few largely beloved chaat items that involves the eater’s complete attention while enjoying them. Consisting of a deep-fried hollow puri, filled with cooked peas or mashed potatoes, and flavoured with a sweet tamarind-date chutney and minty-spicy pani, the pani-puri is the quintessential milestone in the discovery of chaat. Here’s taking a look at some of the regional variations of this beloved food.
Pani Puri
A reigning chaat menu item, the pani puri is one of the most popular street foods in Maharashtra, apart from the vada pav. Made with maida or sooji puris, cracked by hand and filled with a host of potatoes, sprouted moong and chutney, the pani is flavoured with lots of fresh mint, coriander and green chillies to give it a deeply spicy aftertaste.
Phuchka
Arguably one of the most delicious variants of pani puri, the phuchka is what it is known as in Bengal and Bihar. The puris are referred to as papad khar and the tamarind-based water or tawk jhol are served in makeshift bowls made with folded leaves. Calcutta also has a popular ghugni phuchka variety where white chickpeas are cooked with the Bengali five-spice mix, garlic, coconut and ghee, before being filled into the puris.
Known as gup-chup in Odisha and Chhatisgarh, these semolina-based puris are filled with an onion-tamarind flavoured water and sweet tamarind chutney. Popular as an offering available pretty easily around the state, the gup-chup has a spicier flavour but is light on the palette.
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Pani Ke Batashe
The street food snack known as batasha, or pani ke batashe, is one of Uttar Pradesh’s most popular chaat dishes. Depending on where you go around in the state, the flavour of the water changes – from garlic, tamarind, mint and asafoetida – the sheer diversity of flavour will leave you wanting more!
Pakodi
Very similar to its Maharashtrian counterpart, the Gujarati pakodi has a boiled potato filling and a mint-flavoured spicy water which offsets the sweetness of the tamarind chutney. The pakodi refers to the vehicle or puri, inside which fillings are placed and then eaten. But no matter what the name, nothing beats the feeling of a flavour party bursting in your mouth!