Supari, Killi or Dhiri (Part 2)

Guys...

I'm back. Got about 2 hours of sleep. Believe me, I didn't intend to wake so early. For whatever reason, I can't sleep well these days. Don't let me bore you talking about my insomnia. Let's continue the "supari thing".

In mid November (if I remember correctly), I had an interview in an area called Whitechapel. That area turned out to be more of a Pakistani area. After the interview, I went looking around. I saw a lot of Asian shops and bought some stuff because it's quite cheap compared to the shops in my area. While I was looking around one shop, something suddenly caught my eyes. It's called "PAN PARAG - Delicious Pan Masala". Hehe... "Dhoom Macha De... Rang Jama de...". I've no idea what that means. It's an Indian product. It was in a silver-blue can (size of a medium heeraa panna can). Quite expensive as well; about £2. I took the can and read the ingredients. Alright; betel-nuts (foah), catechu (no idea), cardamom (kaafooru tholhi), lime, menthol, and some flavours. That's not bad. It's better to have it rather than not having anything at all. Price doesn't matter anymore. I bought it. I went into another shop, found the same stuff and was looking around. Guess what??? Oh man!!! Rasilyyyyyyyyyy... Never been so happy. I bought 2 box. Hehe. I was so happy that day. It felt so tasty, probably because I haven't had that for a long time. And about that pan masala, it tastes horrible. The smell is kind of weird; sweet and mint plus some other smell. I think the smell of some traditional medical thing. Whatever, ate it only once.

Anyway, mid this month, I found another shop that sells Rasili. It's about 25 minutes here, not that far. I bought 1 box from there. I wish I had bought a few more. I'd definitely buy more, next time. I ran out of supari on Saturday, I had only 3 packets left. I was planning to go shopping on Sunday. As it sometimes does, my luck turned me down the next day. It was so cold and foggy; visibility was around 6-10 metre. So I couldn't go out. I had 1 packet left; poor me. Went through that day thinking about it a lot. So one Monday, I went to that shop and they had no Rasily. It was all gone. But few weeks back, they had sooo much. The only other supari they had was called Mehefil Deluxe Supari; it's Pakistani. I bought 2 box. Do you think I had any other option? I wish I did.

You're going to laugh at me again. What was inside the box was, not what I expected. Of course, it's small packets of supari. But what was inside it? At first, I didn't even think about that. I put 1 whole packet into my mouth without even looking. Oh man!! Reminds me of last year, when I was in India. I was dining at some restaurant with my cousin. They brought a tray like thing after we finished eating. But on it wasn't anything like what we get back home after dinner. It was a mixture of aniseed (dhiri), mini-sugar cubes, and some other stuff. I tasted it but didn't eat it. Well, this supari was kind of like that.  It contains betel-nuts, dry date, aniseed, cardamom (kaafooru tholhi), and some flavours. It's mostly aniseed; rest of the ingredients weren't much.

I'm eating it now. It doesn't taste that good, but I sort of like it now. Whatever!! hehe... I can't go without normal supari. I need it. I miss it everyday. I miss the areca-nuts, betel leaves, clove, and heeraa panna. But, I don't think I'd find it here anyway. I will go to that shop again, probably next week. I'll tell you about it, if I get Rasily. Thank you for listening to me moaning about my life. I know. I'm crazy. I'll come back to you later with more crazy stuff.  

Cheers!!

Hammett Image Source: Aromantic, UK