After dinner mint equivalent?
This is the first time I've ever seen or heard of the leaf folded into a triangle shape and containing rose syrup, some kind of seeds, a jam substance and tobacco apparently.
Every culture has there own delicacies and oddities, my own has uncooked, salted, dried meat with oregano. It sounds odd but I've grown up with it, and so I find it delicious! (It's called samorella or pastırma depending on where you're from).
But back to Pan; I was recommended it by a friend after we had just had a late meal and apparently it is something you eat after such an occasion. What he didn't tell me was that it wasn't really a dessert, which was what I was expecting.
Biting into a leaf is as you would expect, leafy. It isn't a salad leaf which is usually soft or crisp, but an actual waxy, chewy unknown variety.
The gentleman making the parcels laid two leafs slightly overlapping each other and covered them with the seeds which varied from things you see in the supermarket but don't know the name of, to brightly coloured pellets that look like they'd come straight out of a candy store. Even asking my friend what half of the things going into the parcel didn't really get me anywhere, apart from pointing out the one that was tobacco, which was slightly off-putting.
Chewing the first bite of the Pan, I was hit by a bunch of different flavours and textures. I had the crunch of the seeds, the sweetness of the syrup and jam, a bitterness from the tobacco, a chewiness from the leaf and a shock to my senses. I can't really compare it to anything I've tried before, as there isn't really anything I know that is similar.
The bitterness is with you while you chew, and swallowing the last bite of the Pan I couldn't see myself going out of my way to have it again, especially because of the tobacco aspect.
However, as I drove off into the night, dislodging seeds from between my teeth (glamorous), the sweetness of the rose was still present, and for some reason, although I didn't see, smell or taste any hint of mint, my mouth felt minty-fresh which was quite pleasant.
For people who are always looking for something new to experience, I would recommend trying a sweet Pan and maybe asking for it without tobacco. There's something off-putting to me about that element, even though I don't know the rest of the ingredients in the parcel anyway.
There is also a plain Pan, which did not look as appetising as my leaf, and had none of the brightly coloured seeds or pellets, or jam, or rose syrup or most of the things I had to rave about.
I won't be eating Pan again, but I am glad that I have tried it, because now I can say I have.
:-)
Elky
