Smart Masala Box – Your New Kitchen Friend

 

    Cooking is an art, a passion, tradition, an emotion. It’s also a way of showing your love for your dear ones with   your special dish. The masala box plays a crucial part in every Indian cooking procedure. It’s a popular spice storage container, widely used in every Indian kitchen.  Everyone has a treasured memory of a loved one in the kitchen. I can think of so many. It isn’t just my mom or my sister. I have cooked with pretty much every kind of relative that I am close to and there is a memory associated with each one of them in a kitchen.  One of my very fond memories is that of my grandma. 

Traditional Masala Dabba

    

    I have always watched my grandma showing her rusted big masala box  to all her daughter in laws with pride explaining each and every spice and the reason why she has it stored. She taught us how to methodically arrange each and every spice in the masala box as if it were a math equation.

    There is also  a long tradition  followed in  our  Tamil culture. The masala box is traditionally passed down from mother to daughter when the daughter marries and begins a new life in her husband’s home.

    The masala dabba is given as a marriage gift by her mother. There are many sentiments attached to this box. The movie (100 ft journey) captures this beautifully. The masala dabba usually contains the essential spices for  traditional Indian cooking such as Chilli, Black Pepper, Turmeric, Fennel and Cumin. The spices in the box can vary from region to region and family to family. Spices commonly used in your everyday cooking are stored in the masala box and kept within easy reach. Each Masala dabba is unique in the sense that you can customize it to any extent and there is no fixed rule as to what spices go into the masala dabba. It could be anything from whole spices, pure ground spices, masala powders or a combination of them.

Why use a smart masala dabba?

    If you like cooking and cook more than one meal a day the Smart masala dabba from Thillai's can be the coolest thing you have in your kitchen. It is a simple QR code on the masala dabba. Do you really need tech for a masala dabba? But Hey! these are the times we live in. 

Smart Masala Dabba

    As a working woman I must confess that playing the role of a wife, a daughter in law and employee simultaneously can be a bit overwhelming.  As the COVID 19 pandemic continues,  I find myself cooking more meals from scratch and often find myself in a sticky situation with one or two spices running out of stock and have to rush to the nearby annachi kadai or order online. It was during one of these online grocery shopping trips at www.thillaismasala.com that I discovered the Smart masala dabba from Thillais. I ordered this online immediately, it truly has been a blessing. It has a QR code right in the middle of the lid.

        A packaging (QR Code) helps to communicate relevant product details with consumers to help them learn more about the product, its benefits, and its uses it also  serves  as a valuable medium for sharing all kinds of information with consumers at every stage of the consumer buying journey. This can be done easily by pointing the  mobile phone camera on the QR code which automatically takes you to the website and you can do your shopping online from the site.The reason I adore this simple tool is that I can order the spice and masala I need immediately from my kitchen the moment I see something low on inventory.

   We can say that it is not only the secret to mastering Indian-style cooking that lies in this box, but also the sheer convenience that the smart masala dabba provides.  Cooking Indian food can be messy and tricky. Spice dosages are high and while some are used for tempering, each spice is used at different times during the making process and timing is the key, so having all the necessary spices in one handy box rather than a series of small jars with lids is a simple solution.

    Masala dabbas are carried on voyages halfway around the world, and passed on through generations in a family. They’re so much more than just containers for spices. It’s a memory box linked to one of the oldest areas of the brain, our sense of smell.

    I don’t think I can ever fully understand the importance of the masala boxes ever because there is so much history and emotions connected to it.

Author Name: Neethu  Manuel