a real mini-mart

Paan shops as they are called, are the ultimate mini-marts. You can buy a single cigarette, a soda, candy, chewing tobacco, or a paan amongst other things. Paan is basically betel leaves wrapped around fine betel nuts and other ingredients picked by the person ordering. You can get a sweet paan, or one with tobacco. Many people in rural India start their days with a paan, and worry about tea later. But paan is something that is appreciated as much by the rich as it is by the poor. Sweet paan is one of my favorite indian delicacies. BoingBoing.net had a pretty good post on paan recently.


Random paan shop in Visakhapatnam, a coastal city in the state of Andhra Pradesh.