A woman selling pearls and paan on Yalong Bay in Sanya I stared in disbelief at her paan-stained teeth against the backdrop of the South China. She smiled again and squatted by me, handing me a mass of large white, black and pink pearls.
She took off her straw hat and I saw her head was covered with a scarf. She must have thought I was mad when I asked what else she had in her bag. Earrings and more pearls, but I was more interested in the little blue plastic bag. She opened it for me and revealed miniature little paan parcels!
Yalong Bay in Sanya on the island of Hainan is considered the Hawaii of China. Yalong Bays 7 kilometre exclusive virgin beach and azure blue sea apparently longer than any beach stretch in Hawaii. All tourists who flock here wear tropically printed clothes, and a Hawaiian tourist noticed how Hawaiian the Hainan people seem!
For those working in Shanghai, a weekend trip to Hainan is like Bombayites on a break to Goa. So it did not surprise me that our flight was full. We chose to stay at a five-star resort called Gloria.
Being stuck in the exclusive resort world of Yalong Bay, we were far from local markets and villages.
So we decided to go exploring on a small took-took (a motorcycle with a manmade sidecar for two). We ventured into unknown areas off another beach called Dadong Hai and finally were at beautiful restaurants on stilts in a bay, full of local seafood delicacies live swimming about in their seawater pens.
Glorious fresh crabs and prawns once chosen were cooked with spices and served with their ultimate hot chilli sauce made of local yellow chillies!
We decided to check out the local city, Sanya. Driving through it we saw a road full of stalls so stopped the cab and got out.
We walked in and out of markets full of suitcases and clothes to fresh food streets with stir fries flying in the air, paratha like things being made and mangoes everywhere. Chikoos, lychees, mangoes and lots of red paan spit!
All I needed was to find a muchad paanseller, but all the sellers seem to be women! Maybe they would appreciate the larger paan variety from back home?
Sanya town is a bizarre mix of things and people. Many signs for restaurants and hotels are in Russian, and so most of the non-Chinese looking people seem to be Russians walking about.
Bars along the sea front in Sanya town are all in Russian and Chinese with a few names in English.
We decided to eat at a Muslim restaurant, air-conditioned and clean. We sat down to parathas and what we thought was going to be kebab. Little did we realise that one kebab is an entire half leg of lamb adorned with masalas, chilli powder and jeera.
Masaledaar Shanghai
Back in Shanghai, I have relentlessly tried to find masalas. I have asked my Ayi (Ayah) and various Chinese friends but they dont know what I am looking for as they dont eat it themselves.
What they do eat is called Ga Li fen which is curry powder. This is a mix of haldi, jeera and cinnamon powder etcetera. They cook this with meat or vegetables and then eat it. Its a popular, fast and efficient style of Chinese style Indian curry!
So my logic has been that it is here in China, but to find them all sold individually has been a bit of a task. Of course all spices are available in expat supermarkets at expat prices, but I cook enough for at least 10 people, and I cook often and so I use a lot of masalas.
Once I struggled to explain yellow ginger powder or huang jiang fen to a spice stall owner in my local market in Shanghai. I picked up the fresh ginger she had, explained that there was a yellow one, which is then made into a powder, and which is used to create the Chinese curry powder Ga Li Fen. She said she would look into it. I left my telephone number with her and wondered if I would hear from her.
A few weeks later on another trip to the market, there, in front of me, was a bag of haldi! I was so excited. A little crowd gathered around to understand what this strange foreign girl was buying. It smelt fresh and clean.
And tasted wonderful. Far away in the province of Yunnan, waiting at the airport for my flight home to Shanghai, I found a bag of dried imli! So that has found its way into my food as well!
Slowly, my kitchen masalas, which are usually pre-requisite gifts to me from anyone coming from India to China, are being replenished locally. Now, to find proper achaar!
Tips:
Flights to Sanya Airport (Hainan Island) from Shanghai cost upwards from 760rmb one way, approximately 100 for a return trip from Shanghai. www.elong.net
Or contact EON TRAVEL. Joseph on eon.travel@gmail.com or Faye on yes@eontravel.net
Address: Shanghai, 568 Ju Lu Road, Grand Plaza, Block 6, Unit 1A
Telephone: +86 21 62890188
Website: www.eontravel.net
Gloria Resort
Yalong Bay National Resort District, Sanya 572000, Hainan Province, P.R. China Tel: (86) 898-8856 8855 Fax: (86) 898-8856 8533 www.gloriaresort.com
Betelnut Paan- is called Bing Lang Zi in Mandarin, and apparently is used in Chinese medicine for treatment of stomach pains and worms and athletes foot.
