When it comes to traditional home style food, and cooking, we most often celebrate our mothers, aunts and grandmothers. It’s not often that we hear of the men who make a mark in this department. This Kail Podh I’d like to give a shout out to three young Kodavas who are doing a great job of popularizing the cuisine of Coorg, each in his own unique way. Let’s hear it for B.A. Devaiah, B.K. Appaiah, and Lirish Chinnappa!

Capitol Village

In 1991, much before the waves of tourists started heading to Coorg, leading to the building of fancy hotels, mushrooming home stays, and glitzy resorts, B.G. Aiyanna bought a piece of land outside Madikeri, on the Siddapur road, and christened it “Capitol Village” after the Hotel Capitol which he ran in Mercara Town. Aiyanna decided to construct cottages using local materials and building methods, keeping the investment costs down and creating a homely style of accommodation for the small number of tourists who trickled in. And so, in 1994, the first “resort” in Coorg was born.

A popular gentleman, the soft spoken Aiyanna was always receptive to suggestions from visitors and guests on ways to improve the fledgeling venture and make their experience more comfortable.

Today, it’s his son, B. A. Devaiah, who’s at the helm. Devaiah, who has a degree in Mechanical Engineering, grew up around the family business and knew he would eventually take on the responsibility  of running it. His father’s untimely passing meant quitting his job in Bangalore and moving back to Coorg to take on the task of managing the Hotel, resort, and other properties.

Capitol Village’s enduring charm lies in how lightly it sits in the rolling landscape. There are no flashy facades, relentlessly manicured gardens or cobalt pools. Instead, when you drive in to the property, it feels like you’ve happened upon a typical family estate in Coorg, going about its daily business. Twenty five cottages lie tucked discreetly into the heart of the nearly 25 acre property.

The wide open spaces in idyllic surroundings make Capitol Village a favoured venue for large social gatherings, particularly wedding functions. The music played by the “Walaga”(traditional band of musicians) can only truly  be appreciated in these surroundings, where the valleys and hills hold and carry the music in lilting waves of celebration.

Devaiah, who carries forward his father’s legacy with the same considerate and obliging manner, plans to make phased upgrades to the original infrastructure. His team of cooks provide authentic Kodava fare to their resident guests, as well as catering for the various large functions hosted on their premises. Many of the visitors to the resort request vegetarian food, and the Capitol’s cooks dish up baimbalé, kootu curry, bollari barthad, and many other favourites. This is one of the few places where, should you request it for a special occasion, you can still sit down to a traditional meal served on banana leaves. (Devaiah says they can accommodate up to 400 people)*.

The crisp chilli pork at Capitol Village is a must try, and Devaiah has been kind enough to share their recipe here.

Chilli pork, Capitol Style

• Dice pork (with fat and skin) slightly smaller than for curry.
• Boil with chilly powder, salt, turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste.
• Drain the water completely.
• Deep fry.
• Just before serving sprinkle with a sauce made from lime juice, crushed parangi malu and salt

* For a sample of what they can produce, please read this post in which the wedding fare was cooked by Devaiah’s team

Capitol Village – A capital idea!

Cheers Coorg

For B. K. Appaiah, who heads the leasing team in Bangalore for  Global Real Estate Provider, DTZ, food is a passion and it’s his mission to put Coorg cuisine on the map internationally. To that end, he launched his flagship restaurant, “Cheers Coorg” in Bangalore last year.

Cheers Coorg is located in a spacious, multi-storeyed house that has been remodelled and furnished with an eye on recreating the look and feel of a Coorg home.

It succeeds rather well too! The simple lines of the heavy dining furniture remind me of my grandparent’s dining room in Coorg. The walls are covered with a mixture of Kodava artifacts and pictures that find echoes in my own home. There is also some charming artwork by Appaiah’s wife, Kajal, (a post-graduate diploma holder in Apparel Design and Merchandising from NID Ahmedabad). Appaiah encourages visitors to contribute to the eclectic mix by bringing in pieces they think suitable.

Known among his friends for his love of entertaining and serving up Kodava fare rustled up after a hard day’s work, Appaiah says he’s retired his recipes for now, opting instead to have his team of cooks trained in Coorg by his Mother-in-law. All the spice blends are made in large batches on the family estate in Coorg and brought to Bangalore.

The bar, (naturally of much interest in a Coorg establishment!) serves up a variety of interesting cocktails designed by a mixologist friend, with an accent on flavours popular in Coorg. So you have drinks with passion fruit, ginger, pineapple, pepper, orange and…wait for it…bacon! “Pandi in a glass” is a cocktail made with bacon infused Bourbon with ginger and lime. The alcohol shots are cheekily named after some of the usual suspect characters back on the estate in Coorg!

With a current seating capacity of 135, the restaurant will soon be able to accommodate 200 guests, once the terrace is available for the barbecue section.
Working full time in his current job, then taking on the demands of managing a restaurant in the evenings – it’s a gruelling schedule, but as Appaiah puts it, ” It’s the love for food and to bring Coorg Cuisine on a global platform that I am willing to go the the extra miles!”

And we say “Cheers!” to that!

Coorg Shoppe

When a Dentist gets you to say “Aaah”, if you’re anything like me, it’s usually not  followed by something to smile about.

Well, Dr. Lirish Chinnappa is a dentist with a difference! He’s balancing his dental practice with a passion for online retailing, mainly of food products from Coorg. Coorg Shoppe, the first online store dealing primarily with home grown and home made products from Coorg is just over a year old, and growing fast.

(Picture courtesy Dr. Lirish Chinnappa)

Born and raised in the small town of Harihar, near Davangere, Lirish moved to Bangalore to do his higher studies, including a year of BSc in Computer Science, before switching to Dentistry. He has been practicing for close to 10 years now, and established a small clinic in 2007.

On visits home to Coorg, he was always requested by friends to bring back honey. Though he had observed a steady rise in the number of shops selling products like spices and honey,it was a chance meeting with someone involved in building e-commerce platforms for online stores, combined with an interest in business concepts that sparked the idea for his venture.

Currently, Coorg Shoppe offers home delivery across India of spices, coffee, jams, juices, homemade chocolates, the all important kachampuli for pandi curry, and Nectar Fresh honey. For those fortunate enough to be in Bangalore, Lirish offers a terrific treat in the form of WCKD, also known as “Weekend Coorg Kitchen Delicacies “. This is a “book ahead for the weekend” home delivery that offers  pandi curry, or koli barthad – flavours of Coorg in the comfort of your home. While Lirish’s culinary talents run to cooking up perfectly round, evenly browned dosas, the WCKD  fare is cooked in his home kitchen by his mother. It doesn’t get more home made than that!

Lirish isn’t the first entrepreneur in the family though. His mother, Kitty Belliappa, has been running a beauty parlour for over 16 years, and in addition to running the household, finds the time and enthusiasm to support her son’s enterprise. It’s all in the family here, and Lirish has his sister and nieces chip in to help with packing and shipping big orders. His wife, Hema, a busy young mother, encourages his creative side and her gift of a nifty new camera has Lirish enthusiastically snapping pictures for his website.

My favourite product by far on Coorg Shoppe is the smoked, dried pork, made the old fashioned way, over wood fires in the  family home in Coorg. Lirish has generously shared two recipes from his mother with us here:

Mrs. Kitty Belliappa’s Onakk Yerchi barthad and curry

Dry Fry

Ingredients:

• Smoke dried pork 250 gm (chop into smaller pieces if required)
• 1 onion – thin long slices
• 2 green chillies – long slice
• Curry leaves – few
• 1 tomato – chopped
• Salt – to taste
• Red chilli powder – ½ tsp
• Turmeric – ¼ tsp
• Garam masala – ½ tsp
• Kachampuli – ¼- ½ tsp
• Oil – for frying – as required

Procedure:
Wash the dried pork in hot water. Cook it in a pressure cooker (let it cook for about 3 whistles) and keep it aside after draining the water. Take oil in a frying pan and let it heat up under a slow flame. Add chopped onion, green chillies, curry leaves, tomato, salt, chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric and kachampuli and fry it for a minute while stirring it. Add the pork and mix it well. Let it cook for about 5-10 min. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Dry Pork Curry

This needs a masala to be prepared first.

Masala
Ingredients

• Coconut – ½, grated
• Coriander powder – 2 tsp
• Onion 1 – chopped
• Garlic – 2 pieces
• Jeera – ¼ tsp

Preparing the masala:
Grind the above ingredients into a fine paste and keep it aside

Curry:
Ingredients

• Dried pork – 250 gm
• 1 onion – thin long slices
• 2 green chillies – long slice
• Curry leaves – few
• Oil – for frying – as required

Procedure:
Wash the dried pork in hot water. Cook it in a pressure cooker (let it cook for about 3 whistles) and keep it aside (don’t drain the water). Heat the oil in a pan/vessel (you will be preparing the curry in it – so choose the size accordingly). Add all the ingredients (except pork) and fry for a few minutes, while stirring occasionally. Add cooked pork and additional water (if required). Cook until it boils. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Did I hear an “Aaaah” ?!  🙂

Happy Kail Podh!