Here's some Andy-Warhol-style displays of tins. It amuses me that the Sardines are 'Ayam' brand... Ayam means chicken in Malay!
Tinned mushrooms always seem to have lovely labels here. There are often some strange-looking mushrooms inside the tins too.
Rose syrup - love it or hate it, it's found everywhere here. It tastes like liquid Turkish Delight. I'm solidly in the 'love it' camp, and particularly enjoy it mixed with crushed ice and condensed milk (known for some reason as an 'ABC'). This is the only brand I'll buy... obviously because of the sheer beauty of its label!
And then there are the items bought so that I could keep the fabulous tins. These Lucky Spot crackers are OK to eat (if a little bland and uninteresting), but the tin is now used for storing home-made biscuits.
My lovely Shake Hand Brand curry powder tin is now a pencil tin on the computer desk. Look at the fabulous retro-font that they've used for 'Curry Powder'. This is actually very tasty too and we use it a lot.
This tape tin is from school. I asked for some more sellotape for my classroom and it was brought down from the office in this marvellous tin! Again, superb retro-styling - and just the right size for a kitchen utensils holder.
I'm not quite alone in this fascination for packaging... An author and cookbook write who shares the love is Jake Tilson. I first heard of him when I picked up a copy of his book Twelve Kitchens in TK Maxx, at some ridiculously cheap price. The book is beautifully written with some lovely recipes, but more to the point is beautifully presented in a collage style, and includes many photographs of gorgeous packaging. Some pages can be seen here on Jake's website.
