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Pop-ups bring Coorg's best flavours forward
Summary
From ‘pandi’ curry to ‘akki otti’, Coorg's culinary secrets are now within reach as several chefs host pop ups in Bengaluru
Chefs from Coorg are putting their community’s cuisine on the map through pop-ups and food festivals, moving beyond pandi (pork) curry to showcase the region’s diverse flavours and ingredients. Coorg’s cuisine is built around staples such as rice—in forms like kadambuttu (rice dumplings) and akki otti (rice flatbread)—meat (pork, mutton, chicken and fish), and foraged wild vegetables with subtle influences from Mangaluru and Kerala.
Old and new flavours
The popularity of Kodava cuisine has been fuelled by the passion of chefs such as Anjali Ganapathy, founder of Pig Out, a Kodava pop-up kitchen in Bengaluru. She served Kodava dishes, including mathi meen (sardine) fry, kumbla (pumpkin) curry, pandi curry and gas-gasey paysa (poppy seed pudding), at Australia’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March. Her pop-ups in Bengaluru are built around a variety of ingredients, such as pork, wild mangoes, wild mushrooms and bamboo shoots.
Chef Barianda Naren Thimmaiah of Taj Vivanta’s Karavalli points out that Kodava cuisine has a unique advantage when it comes to use of indigenous ingredients. “We have access to ingredients that are found nowhere else, like kachumpuli (a thick, fruity vinegar)," he says. Thimmaiah, who is originally from Murnad in Kodagu and has lived in Bengaluru for 33 years, says, “We are among the few communities that still follows the traditional practice of foraging seasonally, from baimbale (bamboo shoot) to therme thoppu (fiddlehead leaves)." Thimmaiah has introduced a lesser-known Coorg specialty, koli barthad (fried chicken) on the Karavalli menu. The restaurant has served kaake topp palya (black night shade leaves) and koli (chicken) curry on request.
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Some chefs make an effort to highlight less popular dishes from the region. Lesser known vegetarian dishes like baimbale curry (fermented bamboo shoot curry), kutu curry (mixed vegetables in a mild coconut curry) and the seasonal wild mango curry can be found on the menu of The Coorg Food Co. The restaurant will be participating in Bengaluru’s Big Feed Festival in October with a menu featuring pandi, koli and kutu curries. Similarly, Sitara Cariappa’s blog, The Drunken Pig, details lesser-known recipes like her grandmother’s fish curry and madd thopp (a purple rice pudding made from justicia wynaadesnsis flowers). She holds pop-ups all over the country and says people are always surprised to taste her food and learn that there’s more to Kodava cuisine than pandi curry.
According to Kamala Muthappa, vice-president of the Kodava Samaja, Bengaluru, there are about 40,000 Kodavas living in Bengaluru. Kodavas began migrating to the city in the 1950s as agriculture became unsustainable. Now, with second and third-generation Kodavas moving beyond Bengaluru as well, their cuisine is gaining wider representation. Despite the innovation that younger chefs are bringing to the cuisine, the staples remain favourites. This Sunday, for instance, the women’s council of the Kodava Samaja is hosting Theeni Namme, its annual food festival, and on the menu will be home-cooked dishes like erachi (mutton) curry and thith (fire) pandi.
The beloved ‘pandi’ curry
Innovation and spotlighting lesser-known dishes aside, pandi curry remains beloved both within and outside the community, and chefs always make sure to serve it. Authentic pandi curry requires a 24-hour marinading of the pork with a special black spice masala and kachampuli, which is what imparts a distinctive taste.
Originally from Ponampett in Kodagu district, long-time Bengaluru resident Priya Aiyappa, 56, says her restaurant, Coorg in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar, was among the first to familiarise people outside the district with Kodava cuisine. Started in 2009, it ran till 2020. Aiyappa still hosts pop-ups and does home delivery of Kodava food—and her pandi curry remains a best-seller. In July, she hosted a two-day event with four courses, featuring vegetarian options such as chekke (jackfruit) cutlets and kuum (oyster mushroom) curry.
Similarly, Radhica Muthappa, 43, founder of Curly Sue, a speciality pork delivery service, says pandi curry has been her top-selling dish since she launched the venture in 2018. Muthappa has creatively adapted traditional ingredients like kachampuli and bird’s-eye chilli to contemporary pork recipes. “Our Coorg spice sausage is a great breakfast option for those who want a lighter alternative to pandi curry and it’s a perfect example of how we’re reinventing traditional Kodava flavours," she says. Curly Sue’s menu also features Karthakaad ham infused with pepper, bird’s eye chilli, honey and mixed citrus. Another popular item is vanak-erchi, a sun-dried pork dish.
Smitha Kuttaya, a 54-year-old Chennai-based home chef from Coorg, who runs Global Theeni, a catering business specializing in Kodava cuisine, also says pandi curry is a crowd favourite even though there are many takers for her mutton sukka and therme thoppu.
Pubs and bars too have added Kodava cuisine to their menus. Plan B, which opened in Bengaluru in 2010, serves Coorg pork cooked with a traditional Kodava spice blend. It also has a one-of-a-kind spicy Kodava-style pandi burger which marries the classic burger flavours with the spices of the pandi curry—a distinct fusion that can only be found in Bengaluru, reflecting the community’s willingness to blend cultures and ideas. As the Kodava community spreads out, chefs are blending tradition with innovation to showcase food from Coorg.
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