Kerala: Sugar and spice and all things nice
Travel photography notes from God's Own Country
Don't know about you, but Alleppey Green Extra Bold sounds like a type font to me. So does the lighter Alleppey Green Bold, while Alleppey Green Superior sounds like a variant with pretensions — perhaps for use in smart social invitations.
Truth is, these are all certainly menu items — not of the Mac or Windows kind, but the restaurant kind. Our Kerala photography tour is spiced with all kinds of tasty snippets, and one of the most vivid experiences is the exploration of the wholesale spice markets of Mattancherry.
Of course, it's true that anywhere you take photographs in India, strong spices and heady scents will assail your nostrils. But especially here, in the western part of old Kochi, there's a nose-tingling mingling of exotic smells on the main spice-trading streets. Pepper, of course, is the undisputed King of Spices, but just as pungent is the Queen, cardamom (which is what those font-like names relate to — they're different grades of this highly valuable spice). The oil from cardamom is an essential ingredient of perfumes, foods, health preparations, medicines and beverages through the world, and if you've done any travelling in the Middle East, you'll know that gahwa, that Arabian indispensable, absolutely relies on a huge, head-spinning cardamom hit.
As you wander the Mattancherry streets, staring inquisitively into dark, weather-beaten doorways and trying to compose a frame or two in old and nearly dark spice warehouses, you'll encounter a whiff (and often a sack- or truck-load) of ginger, turmeric, cloves, cinnamon and vanilla. And, crouching behind a huge pile of sacks waiting for the pushcart-man to appear side-lit in the doorway, we become aware that there's a couple of tons of tamarind, nutmeg and curry leaves tottering above us. Someone dutifully sneezes.
Back out in the brighter and vivid textures of the trading office — you could easily do a whole day here, just shooting the dusty desk accessories, curling papers, well-thumbed accounting registers and battered colours — Mr Pillai smiles and nods as you go past, unflappable even when faced with our cameras and lenses, and affable even though he's busy signing the dockets for a truckload of some of the fiercest mirch you can imagine: dried chillies from Kashmir, Maharashtra, Gujarat and even a special order of Naga Jolokia, so high up the Scoville scale that it probably needs a health warning.
This is a great, great place to shoot and — thanks to all those spices — to eat. Surely it's time for to share our spice-catch over lunch?
More Kerala photography tour snippets soon…
