One day I was in Connaught Place, looking like this:
Taking this to be a Sign from the Universe, friend and I headed off, walking towards our destination.
We were at Odeon, one of the oldest movie theatres in Delhi, which opened in 1936. Right in front of Odeon is a circular kiosk, home to three paan shops- Odeon Gupta Paan Palace, DN Shukla Odeon Paan and Milan Paan, with a history of their own. Almost as old as their namesake, between the three of them, the shops offer some of the quirkiest paans in Delhi.
You could have a chuski paan, the offspring of a traditional chuski and your regular paan, which will lead to immediate brain freeze. Or its elder brother, the massive flood paan, with even more crushed ice, pushed deep inside your mouth by the paanwaala.
I took the easy way out, I had it in smaller bites. :P Don't do that though, it ruins the experience.
Chocolate paan, with huge dollops of chocolate sauce and chunks of chocolate inside!
Also on offer, strawberry, mint, rose, raat ki raani [the smell! totally similar to the flower], khus and marigold flavours. There's also a Choko-Moko Chocolate Paan, which is not a paan with chocolate inside, but chocolate with paan inside. Only at Gupta Paan Palace.
Gundi Paan, hailing from Calcutta. A set of four small paans, for twenty rupees, they leave you with a cool sensation, post eating.
Meet Chawanni, who has been working at Milan Paan for the last forty five years. He says this is his role to play, and there's no question of him going anywhere else.
Also nearby is Yamu's Panchayat, [pictured way up above, go see], India's first pan parlour. If you're willing to shell some, on the menu is Paan Adaab, coated with real gold foil, Rs. 251 apiece.
They have a very interesting list of why paan flavoured chocolate is better than love. You can eat it shamelessly in front of your parents!
