Mythri Curries & Pickles

Mythri Curries & Pickles is right near the Bangalore GPO at 39/1. If you walk past, you can usually smell the spices before you even see the door. We spend a lot of our time peeling ginger and garlic or chopping up piles of green chillies. My fingers usually smell like vinegar and mustard seeds for days. We have rows of jars sitting on the shelves, and we have to keep rotating them so the old ones get used first. It’s a lot of manual work, stirring big pots of oil and spices over a low flame. The shop is small and the shelves go all the way up to the ceiling. We have to use a small stool to reach the top ones. The floor is made of old stone and it stays cool even when it’s hot outside. Being near the GPO, we get a lot of people who are just passing through to drop off mail or run errands. They often stop in because the smell reminds them of their grandmother's kitchen. We don't use any fancy packaging, just simple bags and containers that do the job. Sometimes we run out of a certain pickle because the fruit wasn't in the market that week. We just tell people to come back next month. It’s a slow process making these things properly. We don't rush it because you can't rush flavor. It’s a messy job but we enjoy the rhythm of it.