By Suchita S.
What do you get when you take a web marketeer, a cell biologist, a jeweller and a housewife, and put them all under one roof? Apparently, pickles in over 10 different varieties. Bringing homemade, gourmet pickles to homes all over India, is Goosebumps pickles.
It takes a good chef, a simple idea, and a slick solution to get the ball the rolling on innovative ventures these days. Fortunately, it's fuelled the likes of Pinank, one of the four co-founders of this family run pickle company, to do something about his mother-in-law's penchant for making pickles. A Gujarati family through and through, the lady behind Goosebumps' marvellous pickles has been making them for over 13 years, initially catering only to close family and friends. Pinank decided to take all the permutations and combinations of his mum-in-law's recipes, and pack them into one of the niftiest ways I've seen to purchase pickles.
The process of selection and ordering is purely online, and one has everything from a year-old vintage pickle, to childhood favourites like Mango and Chana Methi, and innovative ones like Olives & Jalapeno pickle to choose from, and an option to even make your own pickle. Given that I've always favoured pickle made only by my grandmother {sorry Kisan, you just don't cut it}, I decided to test the waters with 2 classics - Green Chillies & Chana Methi. It took about 5 minutes of browsing and 2 minutes of paying up for my order, for it to be en route to Delhi. I'm a skeptical online shopper; and twice as weary when it comes to food, courtesy the number of messy boxes I've received, even through local food deliveries. Mustard oil filled containers of pickle being shipped from Mumbai? I had my doubts about how this was going to turn out.
It took about 3 days for the order to reach my house, but I was happy to receive two incredibly well packaged pet bottles with vacuum packed pouches of gourmet Goosebumps pickles. Not too oily, I was mighty impressed with their quality. The word 'homemade' is commonly misused, but Goosebumps is an exception. The Green Chillies pickle adds a kick to my morning cheela {gram flour pancakes}, and the Chana Methi brings together a good mix of masalas to create a pickle that's light {despite the oil}, packed with flavour, and isn't overwhelmingly spicy. It's wholesome, fresh, and every bite takes me back to time spent with my family over Punju lunches packed with 'ghar key' paranthe, channa rotis and good ol' achaar. Goosebumps is nostalgia in a pet bottle.
Notes in our Little Black Book |
Epicureans rejoice - Goosebumps delivers homemade pickle, made by using age old traditional family recipes, straight to your home. Preservative free, and tactfully packaged, the pickles from this Mumbai based company come in a variety of flavours, from childhood favourites, to more innovative ones.
They sell anything between 500 gms to even up to 13.5 kgs of pickles! Charges start at INR 325 for 500 gms.