Category Archives: Chicago Foodways Roundtable

A Culinary Journey Through India: The Cuisine of Kerala

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Join us on Wednesday, April 23. 2025 @ 7 pm at Mintza (Kerala) Restaurant

Presented by Colleen Taylor Sen

Mintza Restaurant, 2245 West Devon Avenue | Chicago, IL 60659
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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 at 6 PM Central Time

This series of dinners curated specially for members of the Culinary Historians of Chicago and Rogers Park West Ridge Historical Society features the cuisines of different regions of India.

At the first dinner we enjoyed the delicious cuisine of Hyderabad. This time we’ll savor the cuisine of Kerala, a small state on the southwest corner of India famous for its beautiful scenery, diverse communities, and delicious cuisine, prepared with aromatic spices (but not hot!) and coconut in various forms. Continue reading →

Preserving Family Heirloom Recipes

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Presented by Valerie J. Frey
Sock It To Me Cake

Heirloom dishes and family food traditions are rich sources of nostalgia and provide vivid ways to learn about our families’ past, yet they can be problematic. Many family recipes and food traditions are never documented in written or photographic form, existing only as unwritten know-how and lore that vanishes when a cook dies. Even when recipes are written down, they often fail to give the tricks and tips that would allow another cook to accurately replicate the dish. Continue reading →

Food in the Midwest: More Interesting Than You May Think

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Cynthia Clampitt

The history of the Midwest is remarkable for many reasons, not least of which is the diversity of its population, and therefore of its regional cuisine. Everyone contributed to what was developing,  from the Ojibwe harvesting wild rice in Minnesota to Belgian hoteliers in Chicago inventing new dishes. There were Cornish miners in Michigan, Bohemians in Nebraska. Swiss farmers in Wisconsin, Chinese in Missouri, Germans in Ohio, and so many more. Foods found here married with introductions. Traditions of dozens of nations mixed and evolved and added to the richness of a region that became famed for the abundance of food it provides, but that is sometimes hard to define because of its variety.  Continue reading →