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Google launched an interactive doodle celebrating the popular South Asian street food ‘pani puri’.
On July 12, 2015, a restaurant in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh achieved the world record for serving the most flavors of pani puri by offering 51 options.
The snack, made of a crispy shell stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas, spices, or chilis and flavoured water, is known by various names like puchka, gol gappa, and has many regional variations across the country.
In Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, the bite-sized snack is commonly filled with boiled chickpeas, a white pea mixture, and sprouts dipped in tangy and spicy water.
In Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and other north-Indian states, the potato and chickpea-filled treat dunked in jaljeera-flavored water is called gol gappa.
The name puchkas or fuchkas is used in West Bengal and parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, with the key ingredient for this variety being tamarind pulp.
“Though there are many different types of filling and pani for everyone’s unique palette, there are two things everyone can agree on: eat the pani puri quickly to avoid the puri getting soggy or leaking, and always eat it in one bite to avoid a crumbly mess,” Google Interactive said.
According to the legends, the history of the popular snack dates back to the epic Mahabharata time when the newlywed Draupadi was challenged to feed her five husbands with scarce resources.
With just some leftover potatoes and vegetables and a small amount of wheat dough to work with, Draupadi filled small pieces of fried dough with the potato and vegetable mixture, and thus, pani puri was invented.
In the today’s doodle game, the player is tasked to help the street vendor team to accomplish the orders for pani puri. The players is required to choose the puris that match each customer’s flavor and quantity preference to keep them happy.
