Probably the easiest way to explore your ElasticSearch cluster is to use elasticsearch-head.

You can install it by doing:

cd elasticsearch/
./bin/plugin -install mobz/elasticsearch-head

Then (assuming ElasticSearch is already running on your local machine), open a browser window to:

http://localhost:9200/_plugin/head/

Alternatively, you can just use curl from the command line, eg:

Check the mapping for an index:

curl -XGET 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/my_index/_mapping?pretty=1' 

Get some sample docs:

curl -XGET 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/my_index/_search?pretty=1' 

See the actual terms stored in a particular field (ie how that field has been analyzed):

curl -XGET 'http://127.0.0.1:9200/my_index/_search?pretty=1'  -d '
 {
    "facets" : {
       "my_terms" : {
          "terms" : {
             "size" : 50,
             "field" : "foo"
          }
       }
    }
 }

More available here: http://www.elasticsearch.org/guide

UPDATE : Sense plugin in Marvel

By far the easiest way of writing curl-style commands for Elasticsearch is the Sense plugin in Marvel.

It comes with source highlighting, pretty indenting and autocomplete.

Note: Sense was originally a standalone chrome plugin but is now part of the Marvel project.