How to Eat Pani Puri

When You are Assembling Yourself

Know the food items involved in the dish: Puri: the round, hollow, crispy bite-sized balls Masala: filling of mashed or semi-mashed potato/chickpea, spiced Pani: choice of sweet chutney, sour, salted or spicy water

Prepare the puri. Take the puri in your non-dominant hand and poke a hole in it using your thumb or a spoon.

Add the filling. Take some filling in a spoon or your dominant hand and put it inside the puri through the hole. You can adjust the spices and chillies of the masala, if required.

Choose a pani. Either dip the stuffed puri in a bowl of pani or pour some pani inside it using a spoon or a ladle. You can use more than one type of pani. The common choice is to use the sweet chutney along with another kind of pani.

Eat it immediately. Take it all in one bite. Don't let it get soggy, or the ball will break down. Repeat the same with more puris.

End your meal. Traditionally, a pani puri meal is ended with a sukha. To make a sukha, prepare the crispiest puri with a hole and stuff it with the masala. Now, instead of adding any pani, add more spices to it with a small squeeze of lime and garnish it with finely chopped cilantro and sprinkles of bhujiya (local snack item). Eat it immediately.

When Someone Is Serving You

Find a street vendor. The more popular way of eating pani puri is when someone serves you, especially the small stall owners by the streets.

Ask for the price and bargain a bit. (It's traditional). Remember, the prices are different in different places and bargaining does not always yield results.

Receive your bowl. You will be given a small bowl made of plastic or paper or dried leaves.

Choose a masala if there are variants. You might get a choice between potato and chickpeas. You can opt for both if the stall-owner is open to it.

Take one bite and ask the stall-keeper to adjust the masala to your taste. Commonly, people ask to adjust the salt and the chili.

Choose a pani. You can generally choose between a tamarind water or a mint water or a cumin-lime water.

Ask the vendor for the sweet chutney if you like your pani puri to be on the sweeter side.

Wait for your dish. After assembling everything, s/he will serve you in your bowl. Some stall-keepers offer you finely chopped or diced onions which you will be given in your bowl. You can add some onions to each puri before you eat it.

Pick it up using your thumb and your index finger. Support it with your middle finger and eat it in one bite.