[fromusawithluv]

I'm with ya, Amyl. I don't like Gutka either. Thanks for the heads-up too Nick!
No thank you to those "Paan Masala" tins either.

I get my paan customized. No tobacco for me please! It's funny, I actually had to tell the paan wallas that I didn't want any. What red thing are you talking about Amyl?
Very interesting article. it's nice to know what they put in those paans. I can't imagine someone paying 150Rs for one!

Check this outhttp://www.paan.com/index.html. It's got info on how to make paans too.

Is chuna bad for health?

[FarNorth]

When I was in Varanasi I hired a boat for a few hours. The man shared a his green leaf with some nuts or seeds in it and there was some sour tasting white liquid...was this paan? He seemed very pleased that I tried it with him.

[Nick-H]

chuna is the white lime paste?

If so, then yes, I'm afraid so --- but I don't remember the details.

[Nick-H]

Originally Posted by FarNorth

When I was in Varanasi I hired a boat for a few hours. The man shared a his green leaf with some nuts or seeds in it and there was some sour tasting white liquid...was this paan? He seemed very pleased that I tried it with him.

Yes it was.

[Rothrock]

I think the main issue with chunna is that it is very basic (the opposite of acidic) and therefore damages/burns the delicate tissues of your mouth. After a night of several pans my tongue often does feel a bit burned the next morning. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quicklime

The red stuff is basically just food coloring. Part of the joy of paan is how it makes your lips/mouth a sexy red color. However some folks – myself saddly included – just don't get much color. Therefore some paanwallahs add red food coloring. The little container looks very much like the same one I use for tandoori coloring. (I don't always, but sometimes you just want really RED chicken!)

There are several places to get paan in New York. Saddly I have relocated to Portland, Oregon. There is a large Indian community here, but no place to just go and buy a paan. I can get all the ingredients fairly easily – even the leaves – but it just isn't the same.

One quick story about the leaves. I was going to a large birthday bash for two of my desi friends over Thanksgiving weekend. They were turning 40 and one of them is crazy for paan – saada paan, supari, eliachi, saunf, baghair khushbu. I figured it would be a nice surprise to bring paan fixin's and make paan for everybody (30 or so) at the party. I got everything ready and went to a shop in Jackson heights where I got two pounds of paan leaves.

But for Thanksgiving itself I was going to see my sister in New Hampshire. Stupidly I left the paan leaves in the trunk of the car where they froze overnight. They turned very dark and got a bit slimy. You could eat it, but it wasn't very good or appetizing.

So the day after Thanksgiving my sister suggested we call the one desi grocery in Manchester and just see if they had paan leaves. The guy told me that he was out at the moment, but expected to get some shipped to him in the next day or so.

Of course that didn't help me, but it was surprising to me that even in a little town like Manchester, NH it was possible to sometimes get paan leaves.

So for the OP, good luck in your quest. It is possible to get the leaves. Some other cultures use the leaves too. So check Asian, Vietnamese, etc. groceries. If properly washed, dried, and kept cool with a damp towel over them, but still allowing circulation they should keep quite a few days. Definitely take them out of the small cellophane packages they come in.

If you need help with how to make them and all the ingredients you might need let us know. I've really been thinking about posting a tutorial…hmmm…another way I can avoid doing the things I need to actually get done.

[Nick-H]

I think the red should come from the betel nut?

I don't know.

I know many people think that the betel (areca) nut and the betel leaf come from the same plant: they don't, the betel leaf is a creaper, the nut grows on a tree.

[AvidTrekker]

Originally Posted by Nick-H

I think the red should come from the betel nut?

I don't know.

The colour red comes from a chemical reaction between the paan and the lime. Just put some lemon juice [acidic] on the lime. It turns red. So does paan convert the colour. Some leaves are more acidic than others. Some people's mouths are less acidic than others... so they never get the bright red colour, just a dull maroon.

The original kumkum for the ladies' bindi [forehead dot] is made by mixing lime plus turmeric plus some acid obtained from a variety of leaves. The colour is also controlled by different proportions of these three... from bright red to dark maroon.

Nowadays the kumkum is made from inorganic cheap petroleum based carcinogenic dyes which leave a red mark on the forehead later on leading to some white leucoderma type patch.

Ladies wanting to use the real thing can make it at home [see above]

[robotvoice]

Very interesting! thanks for the post, AvidTrekker.

[pan_nv]

If the packet was blue color then it is pan parag, flavoured bettlenut, if packet color was light yellow/golden color then it is tabacco falvored. gutka is banned now in mubai I think.

[Casey]

The packet was blue. I think I will avoid the yellow. I guess I have to wait until my next trip to try paan...and see the Taj Mahal. To quote the Bryan Adams advertisement that were going on while I was there last "third time lucky".

[amyl]

What red thing are you talking about Amyl?

haa..now I remember that thing... its called 'Kath' in Marathi....do not know its english if ever it has one. The more you add the more it adds color to your mouth. It comes in small plates about 5mm thick. These days they make it powder I think. Earlier they used to just take off some with their finger nails and add to our paan...or with that special Nut Cracker they use.


Guys.... never try that white thing - Chuna. It hurts like hell after some time. I never had it after the first time. Besides paan, some guys (including women) mix chuna with raw Tobacco also. o....their unique way of squeezing out some chuna from that tiny packet with one hand and pasting it over a chunk of tobacco leaves already in the other. Then they kind of crush-mix the two with right thumb against the left palm. Once mixed..take the mixture in Index-Thumb pinch and place it well in between the cheek and lower molar. Wow! A good place and a good preparation to let the cheek and gums get in the cancer thing

Oh! So much detailed here .... I like to imitate their entire sequence... Squatting, mixing for a couple of minutes pondering on something and then placing it in the mouth, of course without tobacco I do. Its a usual scene at the bus stops and stations near villages.

Betel nut leaves an eerie feeling in the throat also. Not sure if it has any health implications whatsoever.

[Nick-H]

Some real hardliners (yes, believe it or not this stuff is addictive) just put the paste on the leaf and suck it. Or maybe the guys I saw do this just couldn't afford tobacco or betel at the time!

One old guy I know who is never without some variation of these substances in this mouth has no teeth --- and I suspect that is no coincidence. Mind you, probably not many Indian men of his age do have many teeth left....

Take a look at the cut betel nut: it has an amazing vein pattern. very pretty! And I love the way the leaf sellers build up a pile of leaves in a spiral. They can take exactly the number just in one handful.

[Rothrock]

amyl – I think what you are talking about is called kattha in Hindi and catechu in English. It is made from bark of a tree that is ground and dried into different forms. There are powdered versions, the hard pressed biscuit/tile form, and my favorite a hard lump/cone version. A friend of mine from pakistan also told me about a blacker, stickier version (I loving call it the black tar heroin kattha). But I've never seen it.

My understanding is that in India/Pakistan one soaks and boils the kattha to make a paste. Several of the paan wallahs I've spoken to in New York city have told me they use a bit of milk with water to make the paste thicker and richer when using the powdered form. It seems they don't boil it when they do it this way.

The kattha provides bitterness to paan. I've also heard the word kattha used in songs to mean bitterness – as in a love lost and such.

I agree about the chunna – to a point. Too much is bad, but just a little bit helps to break down all the different chemicals and let them interact. It really makes the whole thing taste better. IMHO

[Nick-H]

Chunna is definitely there for a chemical purpose and, without it, the intoxicating effects will be reduced.

[amyl]

Yes, Rothrock it is indeed Kattha. Thanks for its English word. Amazed to know that its a tree product. Your avatar seems to have had a lot of katha in his paan. His lips are bloody red!

just put the paste on the leaf and suck it.

O yes...and they have many such rounds in a day. Many have a small bag for carrying the leaves and a small cute steel box for Chunna. I like to see their way of taking out chunna from that small box with their thumb nail and pasting it over the leaves.
I wonder about their mouth and taste buds.