Dinner from Coorg, with love!

Dinner is that time of the day when everyone in the family congregates at one place, sharing bits and pieces of one’s day, recounting interesting experiences that one might have had the chance to live through. Most importantly, it is that that time of the day when you have a meal full of love in the  comforting company of one another. It is that time of the day that I sincerely look forward when I can let my hair down, be off guard and share a laugh or two. I look forward to it even more when I know that dinner on a particular day is going to be a traditional fare - one from my native, Coorg.

I can fill stacks and stacks of pages describing the wonder that Coorg is! But a small note here - Coorg is a beautiful place, a piece of heaven on Earth – tucked away in southern Karnataka. With river Cauvery running through the heartland, it is a fertile ground for coffee, pepper, oranges and coconut. One can also find bamboo shoots, mushrooms, mango trees, jackfruit trees flourishing gloriously under the bright yellow Sun of the coffee estates. Famous for its warrior men and hockey players, we have a distinct identity and a unique culture of our own – one that every Coorg is fiercely proud of. We speak Kodava thak, celebrate festivals such as puthari, kailpoldh, wear the kupya chale and kodavathi podiya, adorn ourselves with the peeche Kathi, Pathak,jomale and most importantly have our own cuisine.

And today’s dinner was special for it comprised of Coorg cuisine, that any true blue Coorg would relish. The spread consisted of delicacies prepared and sent all the way from Coorg  by my aunt M. We had otti(pancakes made of rice), baimbale curry(a curry made of bamboo shoots), maange curry(mango curry) and kaake thoppu(a variety of spinach indigenously found only in parts of Coorg). Otti, (my mother’s area of culinary specialisation, she makes the best Ottis ever!) were crisp and hot. The rest of the dishes were sent by my aunt.

When you eat a small piece of the otti mixed with piping hot baimbale curry with a generous dollop of ghee, you are immediately transported to heaven. As if that is not enough, you see that there is maange curry and kaake thoppu waiting silently to be devoured. So you have another bite of otti with the maange curry and then one more with kaake thoppu! Spoilt for choice, I think as I find it difficult to zero in one of three items that I prefer better than the other two. Soon I give up and have all three items, together- to the accompaniment of otti and thoroughly enjoy myself. Mindfulness (that I usually try hard to practice) came easily to me this time round!! For the food is utterly delicious, lipsmacking!

But the icing on the cake was to come a little later. ‘What’s for dessert?’I ask. ‘Kooleputtu’ my mother replies with a smile. Kooleputtu is a steamed preparation made from fresh jackfruit wrapped in banana leaves! Although it has travelled all the way from Coorg, a little bit of heating restores the same freshness with which it is prepared. What better way than to end a traditional meal with a traditional dessert!

 Otti, baimbale curry, maange curry and thoppu

Kooleputtu wrapped

Kooleputtu unwrapped

P.S:Today night, I will go to bed dreaming of the petrichor, the bamboo pickle and my childhood!