How do you get the taste of curry out of your mouth?

The answer is mukhwaas!

Every South Asian meal should end with paan, but if paan is unavailable, there should be mukhwaas.  This comes after dessert, after chai or coffee, when you've decided that dinner and drinks are officially over.

I rediscovered my canister of mukhwaas while rummaging through my cupboard looking for some spice I thought I had, and quickly took a break, sat down in front of the television, sprinkled some into the palm of my hand and had a blissful mouth-freshening moment.  Mukhwaas is a mouth freshener, and after paan (which is almost impossible to find freshly-made in South Florida, but practically omnipresent in NYC or Chicago), it is the most perfect end to an Indian/Pakistani/Sri Lankan/Nepalese/Bangladeshi meal.  There are countless varieties of mukhwaas with all sorts of secret breath-cleansing ingredients, but most mixtures that I've found contain, first and foremost, saunf - fennel seeds.  These can be plain fennel seeds, but are more commonly sugar or candy-coated fennel seeds, which have a slightly medicinal, licorice-like flavor, but with more of a "green" note to to them than licorice or anise seeds.  To the fennel seeds are added a myriad of other ingredients, which can include:  minuscule sugar candies, sprinkles, melon seeds, chopped dates, dried herbs, silver leaf, coconut, betel nut shavings, rose petals, and even little bits of sandalwood or sandalwood essence.  There is nothing that cleanses the palate better after a multi-course Desi (South Asian) feast than mukhwaas.

At any good Desi restaurant frequented by South Asians, you will find a bowl of mukhwaas at the entrance (or sometimes even a jewelry box-looking thing by the hostess stand) with a teaspoon.  Like probably most goras (non-Desis), I had passed by such bowls for years thinking that it was some type of potpourri.  It was only after seeing someone at an Indian restaurant sprinkle a spoonful of the stuff into his right hand and pop it into his mouth that I followed suit and had my post-Indian meal epiphany:  this is the ultimate breath-freshener, and pretty natural compared to all the breath mints and gums out there!

Mukhwaas can be purchased at almost any South Asian grocery either in large pouches for placing into your own bowl at home or in canisters.  My canister has about half a dozen different compartments, each with a different mukhwaas mixture - some consisting of nothing more than sugar-coated saunf, and others consisting of exotic and luxurious combinations of seeds, spices, and dried fruits.  There are also countless brands of single-serving mukhwaas sachets that make excellent additions to lunch boxes as a unique post-lunch refreshment.  So, next time you're at a South Asian restaurant, make sure not to skip the big bowl of mukhwaas.  You're mouth will rejoice...and your dinner date will thank you for it later, I'm sure!

The best place to get a huge selection of mukhwaas, as well as pre-packaged paan and any South Asian foodstuff you could ever want is:

Asia Grocery

785 Miller Drive

Miami, FL 33155

786-268-7700

Sunshine Indopak Grocery in North Miami Beach is probably the next most recommended South Asian grocery.

If you are simply physically incapable of driving down to Miami, Little Market is a less-than-satisfactory alternative in Broward County, although don't expect any help from the shopkeeper, and bring cotton to stuff into your nose as this place always seems to reek of sulfuric-smelling hing (asafetida)