Panipuri is a bite-sized snack: a small, deep-fried puri shell is hollowed out, filled with potatoes or chickpeas and spices, then dipped into flavoured water and eaten in a single mouthful. The flavoured water usually comes in two styles, a spicy coriander or mint chutney called teekha pani and a sweet tamarind chutney called meetha pani. It is primarily a street food, part of the chaat family of light snacks, and it is eaten in both cities and villages. Its exact origin is unknown, but it spread across India in the 20th century, and each region adapted it with local ingredients.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.