A masala house in Rajkot

Shree Masala Bhandar began in 1968 as one counter on Dhebar Road, near Bhaktinagar Circle, with a single hand-fed chakki behind the shop. Kantilal Vora sold four things: chilli, turmeric, coriander-cumin and his wife’s garam masala. Everything else in the kitchen, he said, you can buy anywhere.

The buying has not changed. Byadgi chilli for colour and Teja for heat, cumin and coriander from the Unjha market, turmeric fingers from Sangli, groundnut from the Saurashtra rabi crop pressed in a wooden ghani at low speed. It all arrives whole, gets cleaned by hand, and dries on the terrace for three to four days before it goes anywhere near a stone.

We mill in ten-kilo lots against the orders we have, because a masala loses more in a month on a shelf than in a year in your kitchen. Every packet carries its milling date, its lot number and our FSSAI licence. There is no colour, no preservative, no bran filler and no extract in anything we sell - and if a batch does not smell right on the day, it goes back to the chakki rather than into a jar.