The
golgappa (also known as
panipuri पानीपूरी,
pānīpūrī (help·info),
pani ke bataashe,
Marathi:
पाणीपुरी pāṇīpurī,
Urdu:
گول گپّے,
Gujarati:
પાણી પુરી, term used in Western India,
phuchka (
Bengali:
ফুচকা, or
gup chup (
Oriya: ଗୁପଚୁପ୍)) is a popular street snack in
India,
Pakistan,
Bangladesh, and
Nepal. It consists of a round, hollow
puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water ("pani"),
tamarind chutney,
chili,
chaat masala,
potato, onion and chickpeas. It is generally small enough to fit completely into one's mouth. It is a popular street food dish in
Mumbai,
Delhi,
Karachi,
Lahore,
Dhaka,
Kolkata and
Kathmandu.
The name gol gappa refers to the crisp sphere (gol) that is placed in the mouth and eaten (gappa) one at a time.
Pani comes from the
Hindi word for
water and
puri (or
poori) is the name of an
Indian bread made by deep frying in oil. It is known as
bataasha in the Western region of
Uttar Pradesh. Bataasha is 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
Puchka in
Eastern Indian states like
Bihar,
Jharkhand and
West Bengal, also in
Bangladesh. Because of the bursting sound in the mouth when it is eaten, called
gup chup in
Odisha and South
Jharkhand. Gol-Gappa or Pani Pataase in
Madhya Pradesh, Gup-Chup or Gol-Gappa or Panipuri in
Chhattisgarh. In several parts of Gujarat and Kutch. It is commonly known as
pakodi (પકોડી), not to be confused with
pakoda.
Its popular names and the area where it is known by this name are:
A plate of Pakistani gol gappas (centre) accompanied with other foods
Typically, 4–8 panipuris are served over a portion on a triangular plate made from dry
sal leaves. Some places offer panipuris prepared on a whole plate, but the popular way for them to be served is one-at-a-time from a roadside vendor. Customers hold a small plate or bowl (
katori) and stand around the vendors 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.
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.
While many regions in India have their own variations of the panipuri, the most famous ones are from
Kolkata, called 'Puchka'.
[3]
In Lucknow, this 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,
Odisha,
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 up to 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. As we go down south India pani puri has taken its own variations in many regions. Hyderabad is famous for panipuri in Andhra Pradesh. Here the road side stalls serve pani puris with Boiled Chickpeas filled accompanied by spicy pani. At times the boiled chick peas is again warmed upon the tava with the addition of few more spices to this and is filled into the puris. These are lighter when compared to the potato stuffing. The Gulbarga town of Karnataka state is also considered famous for panipuri. The serving style is different in Gulbarga when compared with other place. Here a wooded slab is fixed over the cart for serving pani puris. The plates are placed on this slab and are filled with a mixture of boiled green peas, potatoes and rawo onions. Then the puris filled with pani are served into this plate. The stall keepers server at a very faster pace when compared to other parts of the country. In Bangalore the puchka version of panipuris are served on streets with raw onions added.
The panipuri is also an off-beat recent entrant delicacy in northeastern 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.
A monthly children's magazine,
Golgappa, was published from 1970 in Delhi.
[4]
Golgappas are generally considered to be a popular low calorie snack (typical serving size being 4 golgappas). The nutritional information per typical un-stuffed suji golgappa is (approximately 12g
Calorie information for the golgappa (12g unstuffed) would be:
