Scenes From a Spice Market

We visited a spice market today.  Interesting experience.  We're so used to going to the grocery store in the States and buying that little glass bottle of cinnamon whenever we need it, located on the nice, orderly Safeway shelves along with all the other spices, neatly labeled and arranged in alphabetical order for our convenience.  That's not really how it's done in India.  Here you go to the spice market and buy spices from open baskets.  The spices are scooped out by surly-looking men into large plastic bags.  This is just plain practicality.  The way Indian people love their spicy food, can you imagine how many of our little jars of cumin and cayenne pepper it would take to create one even one meal?  We're talking about the need for some major bulk buying here!  And you've never, ever seen so many giant sacks of dried chilis for sale in your life!  All in all, it was really cool to see how Indians sell and shop.  There were many little stalls selling spices and staples like lentils and noodles (who knew?) interspersed with people cooking and selling food and other people spreading out their blankets and selling fresh produce off to the side and along the edge of the street.  And the smell!  It was a pungent mixture of dried chilis, spices and gasoline fumes from the nearby street full of honking cars.  Ah, the smells of India!  They are many.

The Indian spice market: beautiful, fascinating and sinus-clearing!