Our Taste of Home: Pani Puri
By Surina Subramanian Bothra
Pani puri, a popular Indian street food, are golf-ball sized crispy shells (puri) stuffed with potatoes and chickpeas and then filled to the brim with flavored masala water (pani). It is one of those dishes that exists in many different forms, that always looks and tastes different depending on who makes it. Some people serve it as an appetizer and some eat it as a main course. It can be breakfast, lunch, or dinner. While my family calls it “pani puri,” some of my friends and neighbors from different parts of India call it “golgappa” or “puchkas.” My aunt’s pani puri is mild and sweet, with cubed potato, small hard chickpeas, yogurt, mint chutney, sweet pani, and lots of cilantro. The version at the Indian cafe next to my childhood home is savory and garnished, served with two different chutneys. My dad’s pani puri is spicy and minimal, with mashed spiced potatoes, chickpeas, onions, and tangy pani with tamarind.
Image from Cooking Carnival, https://www.cookingcarnival.com/pani-puri/
My dad grew up in a small village at the foothills of the Himalayas, and pani puri was a rare special treat. Now, he can afford to eat pani puri every Sunday. I began helping him make it when I was very young, and it’s been my favorite food ever since. We cook all the ingredients separately, lay them out in bowls on the table, and then fill the shells one by one. Immediately after assembling one, you have to quickly stuff it in your mouth in a single movement or the filling will spill out and the pani will make the shell soggy—even the most serious uncle can get a silly chipmunk face when eating pani puri.
Image of Surina and her family eating pani puri, courtesy of Surina Subramanian Bothra.
When we visited my aunt (my dad’s younger sister) and made pani puri for her, she laughed at how much my dad had simplified the recipe. Until she pointed it out, I hadn’t really realized how inauthentic and even lazy my dad’s recipe was—he cooked the potatoes in the microwave, bought the premade shells from the Indian grocery store, and used a prepackaged masala mix for the pani. But after years of making Sunday pani puris, I am partial to his simple version. Later in the week, my aunt even made “real” pani puri for us, and I remember thinking it wasn’t as tasty.
My dad’s pani puri will always remind me of home. I’ve never had pani puri at any restaurant or friend’s house that tastes quite as good to me as my dad’s. It may not be the most authentic or carefully crafted, but it will always be the “real” version in my mind. The mish mash pani puri we eat reminds me of my family and how our culture has been mixed with and adapted to life in America; we may not be the most traditional, but the main cultural elements are always there. And the final product is pretty good.