Betel leaves: Paan from Panwaari Nature’s Delight

At Panwaari Nature's Delight — a colorful food stall inside Apna Bazaar, Fremont's only 24-7 Indian grocery — you'll find a display case filled with dozens of the popular Indian after-meal snack known as paan, each small, folded-leaf offering bejeweled with fruit, nuts and even edible silver decoration.

Owners Ravi and Priya Singh believe they serve the only daily fresh-made paan in the Bay Area. Typical renditions of this digestive snack feature hand-sized, piquant betel leaves filled with sour-sweet chutneys, chopped nuts, pungent candied fennel seeds and sometimes even tobacco leaves all folded into small triangles and pinned closed with a whole aromatic clove.

While the Singhs rely on a zingy variety of betel leaves imported fresh from Hawaii for their paan, many others can be found across South and Southeast Asia. People chew them whole with the areca nut and limestone paste for their energygiving properties, and they make welcome gifts for ceremonies and celebrations.

Priya Singh offers popular classics such as royal meetha paan, as well as her own unique interpretations to tempt the curious. She serves a seasonal mango paan, a lychee paan, a rose-scented gulab jamun paan and a cardamom-cream flavored ras malai paan — fresh spins on the quintessential Indian desserts. The smallest paan eaters can even munch on chocolate versions sprinkled with M&Ms.

“I want this to be something new that the younger generation can eat,” says Singh, “and for them to see why their parents eat this.”

There's a nostalgic feel to the paan cart's decor, like the vintage motorcycle that doubles as the checkout station — an homage to the paan hawkers who haul their carts by bicycle — and the maximalist, colorful aesthetic inspired by small, often wheeled shops called khokhas, a common sight on Indian streets.

For those who arrive more than a bit peckish, the paan cart sits conveniently next to a brand-new stall selling pani puri — deep-fried hollow dough balls with a variety of savory fillings — and a sugar-cane juicer. Early next year, Apna Bazaar, which also sells paan at its Sunnyvale location, plans to expand with an extensive food court and bakery. 41081 Fremont Blvd., Fremont. www.instagram.com/panwaaripaan

Panwaari Nature’s Delight stall in Fremont offers a case filled with freshly made Indian snacks known as paan folded in betel leaves.

Priya Singh at her Panwaari Nature’s Delight stall in Fremont.