If you want to cook proper restaurant style indian curries whole spices is the only way to go. I"ve been using a book The Curry Guy written by Dan Toombs, cannot recommend it highly enough, He has recently brought out The Curry Guy Bible which is all of The Curry Guy book plus a lot more, Tesco"s have it for about a tenner. I got everything I needed online from Spices of India, using Dan Toombs book as a guide £30 worth of various spices makes me a big variety meals for months. I was also using Easy garlic/ginger untill I was told to try fresh, definitely better and worth the effort. I blitz equal amounts fresh garlic and ginger in a food processor and freeze it in a tray for making ice cubes.