A Bandra Ritual
You can take me out of Bandra for 30 years but you cannot take Bandra out of me. I know this sounds cliche. But it is true.
There are certain things that make up a Bandra resident. My favorite memory is eating street food. It is the best!
Never mind the grime, sweat, and tears that went into the making of it. Believe me, it strengthens your immune system in time!
We each have our favorite vendor for each particular street snack. And believe me, there is a plethora available.
In this post, we will highlight Pani puri. It is as essential to Mumbai as the blue crab is to Maryland.
Let me create a picture of what I experienced eating this particular street snack.
It is evening – the sun is just setting in the Arabian Sea and I am standing at the pani puri walla (street vendor selling pani puri) on Carter Road.
Carter Road was a short walk through the Western Railway Quarters that were located at the end of my street.
The pani puri guy would have his little cart on the beachfront. We would stand there in a little group and order our choice of delicacies.
I liked my pani puri sweet and hot with chilled water.
The guy would hand me a small saucer – and then proceed to dip little round puff pastry things filled with chickpeas or fried lentil balls into a concoction of chilled spicy cumin, tamarind, and date water.
Six puris were the standard. We were allotted six each. And he would deposit it one by one onto our plates.
I would go with a group of friends and it is remarkable how the guy would keep track of the number of puris he handed each one.
Replicating the Ritual in America
I introduced this tasty light street food snack to my home here in America – making it an instant hit with my American-born offspring.
The other night I decided I had eaten enough during the day and wanted to switch out dinner with this little piece of nostalgia.
And so dear reader, I am now going to show you how we do it here in Maryland!
First, you need to get the Pani Puri kit from SWAD or any other manufacturer.
Next, open the packages and arrange the little puris on a plate.
Gently break a hole in the top part of the puri. This is so you can fill it with the little lentil puffs that are in a separate package.
Spoon a few of the little lentil balls into the puri.
In your kit, there will be two packets of sauce. One is a tamarind and date sauce and the other is cumin and black pepper sauce. Dilute the sauces in water as instructed into two separate mixing bowls
I like to mix the two liquids in a bowl with ice and then ladle it into small bowls for each person.
I like to add ice cubes to the liquid. It is refreshing on a hot summer night.
If you do decide to make your own variation, you can add spiced boiled potatoes or chickpeas to the filling.
The key to experiencing the full burst of flavor is to put the entire puri into your mouth in one go.
It will take a little bit of practice but I assure you, it is delightful! A mix of sweet, hot, cool, and crunchy will assault your palate.
Here is a video of yours truly performing the pani puri ritual.
Would you try this out? Let me know if you do it in the comments below.
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