Smells and Memories

Do you associate smells with memories? With nostalgia? I don't always but some smells are so strongly etched in my mind that no matter how many years have passed, I can't disassociate them. The pungency of vinegar Pringles chips with always remind me of the 24-hour long train ride to Hyderabad when I was 18 or so. I was traveling with my aunt and cousin and this was the longest journey I had made out of Kerala in a very long time (the only other being a school trip to Delhi). We had packed all our meals and a few boxes of Pringles. My cousin taught me to eat curd rice with Pringles and I had a love-hate relationship with salt and vinegar Pringles that entire train journey. Maybe I should also add that I gained a good 3 kilos during that trip.

Then, there's the smell of Lollia hand cream. I was chosen to go on this fabulous trip to Maui in Hawaii a couple years ago from work. It was essentially a paid vacation trip of sorts with a large group of people I had worked with in the past year. We stayed in a resort (that I'd not be able to afford) that had an award-winning spa and a beautiful gift store next to it. We got vouchers for a spa treatment and after 3 glorious day lounging around the pool and the beach, I decided to get my treatment done the day we were checking out. After the treatment they told me I can pick something from the gift store and so, very randomly, I picked this hand cream. I can't describe how it smells but I can tell you this is surely how heaven must smell. I still have a tiny bit left in the tube and whenever I feel like I need a break from work, I rub some in my palm, take a deep breath, and I am (almost) instantly transported to that wonderful beach in Hawaii.

Recounting those two nice trips of my life, I'm also reminded of how blessed I am :)

Indian Groceries in Sydney: First Look

We landed on a cold winter's night in the beautiful city of Sydney. This move had taken us lots and lots of time to think through and finally execute and while it was incredibly lucky and smooth if you look at the larger picture, the smaller details did get to us from time to time.

The next day was a Saturday and true to the compulsive cook in me, we went searching for the nearest Indian grocery store in Sydney which was in Surry Hills, called MGM Spices. It was small but packed with all the familiar jars and bottles, smells and textures. I was mighty happy and prioritized the buying of dahi (Indian yogurt), dosa batter, toor dal, turmeric, mustard, frozen green chillies, and frozen coconut. I even managed to check out the other Indian store, Shalimar Spices, around the corner and found them to be a tad more expensive. They do have smaller packets of spices which are more convenient though so I'd check them out both before deciding to buy stuff in future.

I had obsessively researched the availability of shallots or chinna vengayam (ulli in Malayalam) in Sydney and delighted to find frozen ones in the Indian store. I needn't have worried though. The French shallots they have in Coles and Woolies, although quite expensive, taste and smell almost exactly like Asian shallots and worked beautifully in the sambar I made for dinner on day 2 of our arrival here.

I have a feeling we are going to love it here.