Coorg, Indeed the Scotland of India!

My Husband Uday and I thought of going to various places on our 17^th Wedding Anniversary, we did make a fantastic choice of going to Coorg.

Referred to as the Scotland of India, Coorg needs no further introduction. Coorg is a serene, little town in Southern Karnataka, embraced in the Western Ghats. It is famous primarily for its mesmerizing sights, varied wildlife, world-class coffee and the Kodavas, the ethnic warrior people of Coorg.

 Coffee

Coorg is one of the highest producers of coffee in the country.

Coorg coffee is famous for its colour, clean beans and fine liquoring qualities which makes it sought-after all over the world. In season, the whole place has the refreshing aroma of a coffee shop.

The King of Spices!

Love At First Spice…
Itsss Pepper!!!!!!
The Pepper leaves are heart-shaped. The tender ones appear bright green while the matures leaves are a of a lot darker shade of green. What is harvested of pepper plant is its fruits, called peppercorn.
The peppercorn shoots look as tightly knitted beads, a few inches long hanging from the stem of the pepper vine. The ripe pepper berries in this shoot turn bright red. However harvesting is done much before the fruit turn red .

The appealing, climbing pepper vine, clinging to shade giving trees, is a common sight in Coorg. Pepper a vital ingredient in cooking and medicines worldwide, is widely cultivated in Coorg in homesteads and plantations alike. It grows in the humid, tropical, evergreen forests of the Western Ghats; India is a major producer, consumer and exporter of black pepper in the world.
Kodagu is a place which is famous for its pepper plantations; it is situated in Coorg, Karnataka.

Queen of Spices… The Green Cardamom

Lemongrass

Finger Lime Flower

Finger Lime

Avocado

Rose Water Apple

Fishtail Palm Tree

Today extremely popular among the tourists, a small Kodagu (Coorg) district is truly gifted with nature’s bounty of indigenous spices, fruits, wild fowl and wild pigs.

Coorgis emphasize on less oil and slow cooking with a lot of usage of pepper, garlic and ginger. They prefer using green chillies than the red chillies.

Bylakuppe

 

You will be astonished to know that Coorg has the biggest Tibetan settlement in South India. When you visit Bylakuppe, ensure that you visit the divine Namedropping monastery.

Dubare Elephant Camp

Karnataka is famous for its elephants and the Dubare is a pleasant experience for any animal lover like me. And it’s not just elephants; one can also spot leopards, bears, peacocks and partridges in the surrounding beautiful forests.

Some more knowledge that I gained in Coorg was on different flowers , spiders and spider webs that I had never seen before…

Torch Ginger Lily 

Torch Ginger Lily

Torch Ginger Flower

Red bird of paradise heliconia

Brugmansia ‘Frosty Pink’ (Angel’s Trumpet)  ….Datura

Head Ginger Flower

West Indian Jasmine

Musa velutina

Flowering banana or wild banana flower

Peace Lily

Bracket Fungus

Calathea crotalifera – Rattlesnake Plant

Water Bamboo Plant

Star Moss

Funnel Web

Indian Funnel Web Spider

What made our visit to Coorg all the more special was The Tamara Resort, where we stayed and enjoyed their impeccable Hospitality and Mouth-watering food especially the Coorgi Cuisine. The employees there were so humble and indeed are an asset to The Tamara Resort. We stayed there from 10th Feb 2020 to 14th Feb 2020. Wish we could stay there for a much longer time.

I had no idea that I would be a part of #TheEconomicTimes  #IndicaGastronomica for providing my #CulinaryInputs for this Marvelous place called Coorg in the Immensely and Super Talented  #AnirbanBora’s article on Land of Coffee, Wild Boar and Kachampuli, which was featured on the 19th May 2019.