Kodava Cuisine

Bamboo shoot or Baimballe is a forest vegetable. Like literally, you don't find it anywhere but in forest and they also happen to be a favorite of the Elephants. I love elephants, they are my favorite animal! Close to where my grandmother lives, there is this beautiful elephant camp, Dubare, where they train them. When we were kids, my uncle would drive us down to Dubare  and we would spend an entire day there. It also happens to be by the banks of the river Kaveri. We would play in the shallow waters, cross the river on small pebbles and go on to the other side. The other side was where the elephants were kept, in huge wooden cages. but that's just the wild ones, who were recently captured and needed some disciplining and training by the mahouts. During lunch time, they would make HUGE raagi balls and feed the elephants! I've fed them and it's such a beautiful feeling. This huge creature opening it's mouth in front of you for it's food and after it swallow...

I am a Kodavathi from the land of coffee, honey and spices, called Kodagu/Coorg. Over the years, it's been called a million things and one description that stuck was : The Scotland of India . I have never lived in Coorg, so that doesn't make me hardcore Coorgi, but I am proud of it nonetheless!  We call ourselves Kodavas and Kodavathis and I can go on and on about the culture of Coorg, but let's reserve that for later. Coorg is obviously famous for it's scenic beauty and the let's-go-to-Shimla-for-summer-holidays culture has fortunately not destroyed this yet. I hope it never does. But what Coorg is more famous for, is it's food. We love our food. From the top of my head, 8 of my 10 favorite Coorgi dishes are non-vegetarian. We love out meat. Of course, we belong to the warrior clan, so that makes our love for meat obvious. I've grown up eating coorgi food, and although I've lived in North India for a major part of my life, I haven't yet gotten...