Since I had asked about them, after dinner yesterday our hosts took me to a small stand and bought me a paan, which looks like herbs wrapped in a green leaf with some tin foil on. It seems such a curious thing but I had been too cautious to try one on my own.
The basic technique is to put the rather large leaf role into your mouth and chew until it slowly disappears. It is not easy work and the whole process of eating took up to ten minutes.
It is a rather strange taste sensation with an early soapy aftertaste but the long aftertaste is one of a fresh mouth.
According to wikipedia the paan is fillings wrapped in a triangular package using leaves of the Betel pepper (Piper betle) and held together with a toothpick or a cloveâ?¦The paan is chewed as a palate cleanser and a breath freshener…Paan filling is generally a mixture of various spices, fruits, and sugar. Paan makers may use mukhwas or tobacco as an ingredient to their paan fillings. Although many types of paan contain Betel nuts as a filling, many other types do not.
Apparantly there has been talk of banning the paan since it has been linked to causing oral cancer.