There are few things that are more miserable than a lean
piece of pork. Fat makes pork. In fact, fat makes most food. It is the best
carrier of flavour. Nothing breaks my heart more then seeing someone sitting
across the table, picking out the fat off a lovely portion of pork chops and
pushing it to the periphery of the plate. Why? WHY? Don’t like fat? Eat chicken
then. Or better, chew on a courgette.
When I was in Coorg I must have gone through ten kilos of
pork in less then a week, half of which was fat. And did it make me happy. In fact,
in Coorg cuisine, which is basically no more than pork and rice, in one form or
the other, fat is prized. But then, imagine, back in the day, a culture of
warriors, traversing hills, living in the dense forests, hunting for food – I don’t
think a smoothie and celery would have kept them going.
Ask anybody in Madikeri or there abouts (Coorg is a district, with many hill stations, Madikeri being the most popular) what the best place for local food is
and chances are that every body will point you to Coorg Cusinette. A functional
place; tables, chairs and a sink to wash your hands. And while the food they
serve would have been ‘functional’ to the people is has sustained over the
centuries, to someone like me it is nothing short of gourmet. This is one of
those place where the food is sold out by 8 pm, so head there early.
The menu doesn’t run into pages and having tried every meat
dish on the menu I can tell you that the Pandi Curry (Pork Curry) and the Pandi
Beev Barthadh (Pork Chops) are pretty similar. But then they would be; they both
have the same magical ingredients – fatty cuts of pork and lots and lots of
pepper. Now, I am sure there are subtle differences, barring the cuts used, but
the proportions of fat and pepper don’t leave much room for these to stand out.
I have managed to get the recipe for a Pandi Curry, not from this place but
from the chef at the resort where I was staying, so I will be giving it a shot
at some point. The Pandi Malukootunadh (Chilli Pork) was also superb. Dry,
sticky, crisp in part, spicy. Basically, fried bits of fatty pork tossed in a spicy
sauce. I do think that this is not that traditional a dish as the other two. Or
maybe it is, but doesn’t go back that long. I just got the impression that while it sort of made
sense on the menu it wasn’t authentic – like Butter, Pepper, Garlic Crab at the
Mumbai Lunch Homes.  |
| Pork Chops |
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| Spicy Pork |
The pork was served with rice rotis and rice dumplings. I apologise for the photograph of my half eaten plate of food. Though I am notorious for not letting people dig in till the time I have got a shot the the food first, I forget all about my camera this time around.
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| 11 o clock to 6 o clock - Pandi Curry, Pork Chops, Spicy Pork, the Rice Dumpling, Rice Roti |
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