Story of Chicago’s South Asians and Their Food
Presented by Colleen Taylor Sen
Chicago has the country’s third-largest urban population of South Asians (a community that includes Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Nepalis) – and a vibrant South Asian food scene.
Colleen Taylor Sen will tell the story of this community from the early 20th century when a small community lived on the Far South Side to the present. She’ll also talk about the evolution of the city’s South Asian grocery stores and restaurants, including the transformation of Devon Avenue on the Far North Side from a mainly Jewish shopping district in the 1960s to a mecca for South Asian shoppers from all over the Midwest.
Today, Chicago’s Indian food lovers can enjoy a wide range of cuisines from the simple fare of taxi drivers’ “dhabas” to a Michelin-starred temple of cuisine.
Biography: Colleen Sen has presented many programs on Indian food and culture. A prolific author and editor, she has contributed free-lance articles to such publications as Travel and Leisure, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, and was a regular participant in the Oxford Symposia on Food and Cookery.
She has written eight books, among them Food Culture in India, Curry: A Global History, and Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India. In 2017 Colleen coedited The Chicago Food Encyclopedia. Her books have been translated into Arabic, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. She has also organized many culinary tours of Indian stores and has given talks and cooking demonstrations on Indian cuisine.
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Tuesday, December 3, 2024
7 PM Central Time
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