How to Chew Beetle Nut

I am realizing that Taiwanese people love to share their culture. They love to give me all kinds of exotic things to try. I was sitting outside of my hotel in Alishan when a Taiwanese tourist stopped to take an interest in me. I was eating a “mountain tomato,” a red fruit with slimy frog egg seeds.

The man gestured that I was eating it completely wrong and showed me the correct way. He then began pulling them out of his pocket one after the other and distributing them to the CRC students. I don’t know how he could have been hording so many fruits in his pockets.

To eat the fruit, you roll it around in your palms, massaging the insides away from the skin. Then you bite off the top and suck it out like a baby suckling a breast. The man was laughing hilariously as we did this, probably because of this sexual connotation. He continued to dish out fruits at an alarming rate. After I ate about 4 I couldn’t handle it anymore. I refused a fruit and instead, he shoved a large thing directly into my mouth, mid-sentence, with his dirty fingers. Wow! I took it out to examine it before I consumed any old thing from dirty fingers.

(Red teeth from a mouth full of beetlenut...not my most stunning photographic moment.)

It looked like a green acorn wrapped in a fresh shiny leaf. He pointed to his red teeth, and I realized, this is a beetle nut. It is used like chewing tobacco, that you crunch up and let rest along the gum line. The man urged me to chew it, as his friends jokingly punched him for being such a bad influence on the mei guo ren.

I have always wanted to try beetle nut, but have also been a little afraid of it. It is highly addictive and stains the teeth bright red. All over Asia there are vermillion stained toothy smiles, like the owner of the smile is a vampire.

(Spit from chewing beetlenut...a little gross)

I chewed up the nut which exploded with bitter-sweet juices in my mouth. I was unsure of the proper chewing procedure, so I just chewed uncontrollably, slurping my spittle all over the place. My bus was about to leave, so I hurried up the hill, leaving my generous friend. As I passed the vendors, an uproar of laughter rolled along with me as fingers pointed to my crimson mouth.

(Chewed up piece of beetle nut after I was finished)

When I crested the hill, I could feel the effects of the beetle nut. My blood was coursing through my body like a machine gun. I had a surge of energy and my head felt dizzy. WOW! This definitely is a stimulant. After just five minutes of chewing, I could tell why it is so addictive. I chewed the nut for the duration of the bus ride and actually really relished it. I think I will have to stay away from beetle nut though, because I do not need red teeth or more addictions.

(My red tongue after chewing beetlenut)