Financial Times

On-the-spot curry flavours from new McCurrie store
By Quintus Perera
Are you are a worried housewife unable to prepare different curries and desperate for some ready-to-use curry flavours from Sri Lanka, Malaysia or India?

Then walk into the McCurrie Spice First (MCSF) store at Kirulapone where the flavour of your choice is blended and mixed while you wait, from staff trained by Numa Pathikirikorale, Director, Lanka Spice Ltd, - helped by an up-to-date lab.

MCSF offers personalized service and a concept that is much different from supermarkets where readymade flavours for Asian and other types of cuisine are on sale. The lab would blend anything the customer needs with a soon-to-be added feature being live cookery demonstrations and interactive food tasting. It would make available factory-fresh herbs and spices like freshly crushed garlic, ginger, grated coconut for direct kitchen use and pickles and sambols packed and ready to eat.

The store is also planning to accommodate a health corner where flavours are blended for the sick and the old. Arrangements are also made to manufacture McPeyawa, a health product for cough and cold. In the 1970s, Numa's husband, Nalin Pathikirikorale floated Lankapro Ceylon Ltd to export Sri Lankan spices. In 1981 together with Numa and a few others they launched Lanka Spice Ltd (LSL), the first company in Sri Lanka to blend, mix and package spices and herbs.

For the mixing and blending of the spices and herbs a factory was set up at Makumbura, Pannipitiya helping LSL to become the pioneers in the spice marketing in packet form in Sri Lanka. Since then some other companies too are in the same business. LSL initially exported spices only in dry form and also marketed them in small quantities in Sri Lanka.

LSL has done a tremendous service to the public by marketing products under the brand name 'McCurrie' where quality is guaranteed and unadulterated. The 'McCurrie' factory is working at its optimum capacity and produces five tonnes per day. The products are marketed across Sri Lanka and continue to be exported to countries including Japan, England, Australia, Lebanon and Russia. The factory is fitted with state-of-the art machinery and employs 80 workers.

Numa and her husband have traveled widely and lived in many countries and in the process gathered a lot of knowledge in blending, mixing and food tasting. Numa who personally supervises the new outlet at Kirulapone said that the reason for consumer confidence in McCurrie products is its high quality.

She said, "Our strongest asset is the workers and we have chosen two of the very old hands to declare open the Kirilapone Store which we consider an honour for the entire workforce." McCurrie spices are prepared employing the most sophisticated technology. The entire process of fumigation, classifying, roasting, grinding, blending and packing is done under strict hygienic conditions and supervision by trained food technologists. They also receive technical assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.

The company offers in sachet form powders like chillie, curry, pepper, turmeric, coriander, fennel, Maldive-fish and in seeds, all the varieties that are used in cooking food.

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