Coorg Delicacies

In my earlier blog, I had written about Coorg. The tale of monsoon and the joy it brings. Along with the pleasant weather and fun, monsoon also brings with it incredible wild food.

We the people of Coorg wait for months for the showers to begin and these wild food to grow.

It is amazing to go into the coffee estates and hunt for wild mushrooms. There are diverse varieties of mushrooms, with various colors, sizes, and shapes. Out of these, it is extremely important to select only the edible ones. These ones are hard to find as they grow in fewer numbers, whereas the nonedible ones can be found almost everywhere. I find these wild mushrooms to be tastier than the store-bought ones. Since its always showering, these mushrooms tend to rotten within a day after emerging from the ground hence we must pick them soon. These are cooked in various ways but my favorite one out of them is the mushroom curry. It goes very well with roti.

The next one is the bamboo shoot. The shoots of green bamboo are collected. It is actually quite poisonous if cooked right away. Hence it is chopped finely and left soaked in water for about 2-3 days. In these two days, the water is changed twice. This removes the poison. And it’s ready to be cooked and savored. This is one of my absolute favorites.

Along with all these wonderful plants, grows amazing fruits. Mangoes, jackfruit, and oranges along with a lot of wild berries The dishes made out of these fruits are very famous and different. Mouthwatering curry is made by collecting ripe wild mangoes. The unripe jackfruit is also used in curry while the ripe ones are made into chips or steamed cakes. The seeds of the jackfruit are dried and preserved. They are later used in numerous dishes like sambar, chutney, and so on.

Different kinds of edible leaves like colocasia, fiddlehead fern are sauteed, spices and diced vegetables are added and enjoyed

These are some of the many delicious food items that are available at Coorg during the monsoons. Looking forward to enjoying these till the monsoon ends.