A NEW shop designed to spice up the retail market in York has opened in Goodramgate.

Rafi's Spice Box, which for 15 years has supplied the community in Sudbury, Suffolk with authentic Indian produce, will now also supply York with the likes of curry leaves, tamarind and ghee and a choice of 115 Eastern pickles.

Rafi Fernandez, accomplished cookery author and teacher, whose family hail from Hyderabad in southern India, opened the original Spice Box in 1988.

Rafi's two sons, Kevin and Lee, who have a mixed background including marketing, cooking and retail, manage the new shop.

The shop will also sell Rafi's Spice Box Curry Pack - an all-in-one kit to create any one of 27 authentic regional curry recipes at home

The curry packs have now become so popular that they have been sent to all four corners of the globe - including India.

Once opened the packs can be reconstituted with water, and meat or vegetables added.

Its website, developed five years ago, now daily receives orders from all over the world. Packs are made to individual orders and usually received by the customer within a few days of ordering.

Updated: 10:12 Wednesday, April 28, 2004