If you’ve not had paan while you’re in Lucknow, you’ve failed the Nawabs! And if you’re looking for a specialty paan shop, Azhar Bhai ka Paan shop in Chowk is the place for you. Because apart from your regular paans, Azhar Bhai makes paans infused with medicinal herbs.
MEDICINAL PAAN
There are about 25 vareities of medicinal paans, which have jadibootis. So there’s a paan to aid you in digestion, others to relieve you of stomach ache, back pain, mouth ulcers. The remedies date back to the Nawabi era, claims Azhar Bhai, who is carrying forward the legacy started by his grandfather 80 years back.
Price: Between Rs. 10 and Rs. 15.
BEGUM KI PASAND
But I don’t want a medicinal paan, you say. Well then, try the Begum ki Pasand paan, a favourite with the ladies, according to Azhar Bhai. “You have to eat the massive paan all at once to experience its flavour, that’s how a paan should be eaten,” he explains. The paan is filled with rose gulukand, lakeen (medicinal plant), papaya bits, meetha karaunda and the most important ingredient – aanwle ka murabba, which works wonders for the skin and eyes. Though you may find it difficult to fit the whole paan at once in your mouth, as Azhar Bhai suggests, the paan is refreshing even in bites.
Price: Rs. 25
BIRYANI PAAN
No kidding, there’s a paan with the flavour of biryani in a paan! Azhar bhai makes it possible serving a paan that gives you the exact taste of biryani spices.
Price: Rs. 15
BEST TIME TO VISIT
Anytime between 12 noon and 1 a.m.
Rush hour: 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. in the night.
Location: Akbari Gate, Near Raheem’s, Chowk, Lucknow
