Gourmet Secrets by Karen Anand: A mouthful of Coorg

The more I travel in India the more I realise what amazing diversity of food we have and how regional specialties are often misconceived in either the press or in restaurants. I recently visited Coorg in southern India. About 250kms from Bengaluru, it’s an area with a sense of nobility and belonging, of dense forests, coffee plantations and some spectacular estates. The terrain is very different from the rest of South India. As you take the gentle climb from the plains to Coorg or Kodagu as it is now known, you have beautifully-shaped mountainous rocks, areca palms, which produce betel nut, palm trees and then paddy – it’s a really stunning scape that looks a little bit like a 19th century English painting of India. The capital of Madikeri or Mercara as it was called before, looks like a town like any other town in India, but as you dig a little deeper, go and visit the vast estates and eat with locals, you find a generosity of spirit, an unbelievably high education level and a joy of preserving traditions…and that includes food.