"Still the King of Spices"
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humble
beginnings. My mum, Kamri, was from Durban and she saw a
niche for selling Indian groceries. In 1951 they started Lalla's Cash
Store in the Makans Building in Gardiner Street in South End.
"It was a vibrant, cosmopolitan community then. I arrended Saint
Monica's a church school, and I remember we all happily said grace every
Friday, even those of us who weren't Christian.
"I was seven years old when we were evicted from South End in 1968.
I
clearly remember the terrible floods or that time and , of course, moving
to our present site on the corner of Stanford Road and Cottrell Street.
"My parents were very hard working and my two sisters and I helped
out in the store every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Today
my sister Roshni and
The store is something of a landmark on the busy corner of Stanford Road and Cottrell Street.
Pharmacist: Anil Kooverjee, who now owns and oversees Lalla's as well as a successful pharmacy across the road.
"Lalla was my grandfather's first name. In the old days, many people adopted their surname, so up until I reached high school I was called Anil Lalla.
"So my father, Jena, was also known as Lalla and, of course, by the time I had graduated from UPE as a pharmacist, the shop was already a household name. I couldn't change it," Mr Kooverjee said.
Mr Kooverjee's grandfather, Lalla Kooverjee, came to South Africa from Navsari, south of Mumbai, India.
His father, Jena, founder of the legendary spice emporium, was born in Graaff-Reinet, and at the age of 12 was already earning a meagre living in a Port Elizabeth shoe factory.
"It is quite amazing to think he built this business from such
His impressive knowledge of spices and knack of mixing up secret, zesty blends comes from years spent working with the richly flavoured ware.
Much like a traditional Indian market store, Lalla's is an assault on the senses, jam-packed with bowls piled high with fiery-coloured curry powders, some with such cautionary names as Mother-in-Law and Skopskietendonner.
Evocatively fragranced incense crams the shelves alongside bottles of delicious-looking pickles and pastes, natural hennas and hair oils with mystical Ayurvedic herbs and an array of fireworks to light up any schoolboy's eyes.
The spices are mostly imported - cinnamon from Sri Lanka, cloves from Zanzibar and Madagascar, elatchi from India, saffron from Spain and Kashmir. Coriander and chilli are about the only things homegrown - from good old Rustenburg