Panipuri: Google doodle celebrates India’s beloved street food

Search giant Google on Wednesday celebrated ‘Pani Puri’, the much-loved Indian street snack, by introducing an interactive doodle game around it.

It was on this day in 2015 that a restaurant in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore achieved the World Record for serving the most flavours of ‘Pani Puri’ by offering 51 options, under the guidance of Masterchef Neha Shah.

Pani Puri, occupying a special place in India’s hearts — and stomachs — is a fried disc of dough commonly filled with boiled chickpeas, a white pea mixture, and sprouts dipped in tangy and spicy water. It is famously known as ‘Puchka’, ‘Golgappe’ and ‘Pani patashi’ in different cities across the country.

”Today’s interactive game Doodle celebrates pani puri — a popular South Asian street food made of a crispy shell stuffed with potatoes, chickpeas, spices, or chilis and flavoured waters,” read the Google doodle.

Though there are different varieties of filling and ‘pani’ to cater to everyone’s unique palette, there are two things, the search engine notes, that 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”.

The rules of the game in the Google doodle are simple. The players are tasked with the challenge to help a street vendor team fill orders for pani puri. They have to choose the puris that match each customer’s flavor and quantity preference to keep them happy.