David-Michel Davies recently went to India, and has chronicled his trip in his new blog. He discovered a treat there, called paan.
Specifically, Paan is made by taking a betel creeper leaf, adding some ingredients — the masala– and then folding it up into a triangle for chewing/consumption. The ingredients can be a wide range of things, but generally Paan falls into two main categories: Mitha (sweet) or Saadha (with Tobacco). The Mitha Paan (I didn't try the tobacco variety) usually has betel nut, lime paste, almond powder, grated coconut, pistachio powder, and sometime a very sweet cherry jam or chutney. The combination of all these ingredients makes for a very tasty and refreshing after dinner treat; the plant enzymes, lime paste, and mild stimulant from the betel nut acts as a digestion enhancer and breath freshener.
UPDATE: Kevin Kelly took this photograph while traveling in Asia. It appears in his book, Asia Grace. He sez: "This is a cool ornate paan shop in southern india. That's it. That is the entire shop. A shelf about three feet deep and maybe 8 feet wide, with two guys sitting all day on the shelf (about waist high). In many ways it is the ultimate walk-up service set up. No bending, reaching, or waiting. Imagine it as an ATM for treats, or a gonzo vending machine, only with live human animation, mirrors, beveled glass. Maybe by now they could have LEDs at night."
UPDATE:Kurt sez: "Coincidently, last night I stumbled across Benjamin Feen's photo album from his current trip to India, where he has a step-by-step photo sequence of the creation of "sweet paan" on page 3. Link
UPDATE:Farhad Manjoo points out this old BBC article that warns of oral cancer in paan aficionados. Link
