paan

First, let me say that I've not been keeping up with my blog duties, and for that I'm sorry. I've been too busy reading Jane Eyre, riding rickshaws, going to yoga class, and stuffing my face. You're going to read a little about that last thing now. By the way, the above picture is of Caitlin Ruth O'Connor, who's remarkably like me, in that she'll pretty much eat anything!
Aaron told me a little about paan after his last trip to India, and I read about it in my trusty guidebook. It's made of shredded betel nut, mitha masala (a mix of fennel seeds and other spices), and often chewing tobacco. It's all wrapped in a leaf, and chewed slowly (and not swallowed, if you've got the tobacco variety), and then spit on the ground.
Paan is sold by paan-wallahs from tiny stalls. You can tell it's a paan-wallah stall because there are usually a bunch of men standing around it spitting red stuff out of their mouths. Cait and I wanted to try the real deal, but when the paan-wallah pulled out a couple of betel tree leaves smothered in a weird red-brown paste, we wimped out and went for the sweet paan instead.
It's just like its more potent cousin except the tobacco is gone and seems to be replaced with a ridiculous amount of sugar in the form of a red syrup (think maraschino cherry juice). It's supposed to be a mouth refresher, but it kind of tasted like eating potpourri to me, and Cait said after that she felt like she just drank a bottle of perfume. But now we can check paan off our list!  -Sarah