Google Doodle Celebrates India's Most Famous Street Food Pani Puri With A Unique Game

• Image Credit: Google

• Jul 12, 2023 | Dhupali Das

Google is celebrating India's most popular street food, 'pani puri,' with a special interactive game Doodle...

Digital Desk: Google is celebrating India's most popular street food, 'pani puri,' with a special interactive game Doodle today. In the game, users will be able to help a street vendor in fulfilling pani puri orders by assisting them in selecting from various pani puri flavors in order to fit each customer's flavor and quantity demands. 

On this day in 2015, a restaurant in Madhya Pradesh's Indore entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for serving 51 different pani puri flavors to its customers.

Google introduced the new pani puri game Doodle by describing pani puri as a "popular South Asian street food made of crispy shell filled with potatoes, chickpeas, spices, or chilis and flavoured waters."

Pani Puri's origins and regional variations: 

According to legends, Pani Puri was first invented by Draupadi during the time of the Mahabharata. According to the story, when Draupadi married the Pandavas, the warriors were still in exile and had few resources. Kunti, Draupadi's mother-in-law, instructed her to prepare food that would satisfy the appetites of the five men using some leftover aloo sabzi and wheat dough. Draupadi prepared a bite-sized pani puri as a result, which helped the Pandavas feel full. The outcome was a bite-sized pani puri that Draupadi prepared, which helped satisfy the Pandavas' hunger.

The popular street food has many varieties and is recognized by various names throughout the country. In Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, a "bite-sized street food" is referred to as a pani puri, which is typically dipped in boiled chickpeas, a white pea mixture, and sprouts paired with spicy pani. 

In north Indian states like Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and New Delhi, gol gappa refers to a small street snack stuffed with potato and chickpea and served with jaljeera-flavored pani. Similarly, in West Bengal and parts of Bihar and Jharkhand, street food is known as puchkas or fuchkas, and the major component is tamarind pulp.