HeyJaredBeyond Babylon | Jewish Food Stories from Southeast Asia | Elli Benaiah
👉 Telling the untold food stories of the Baghdadi Jewish diaspora — and exploring the Jewish Curry Culture worldwide — through recipes, memory, and migration, from Baghdad to Calcutta and the kitchens of Southeast Asia.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 15
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- Oct 1, 2026
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- Jul 23, 2026
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Sumac in Bombay (opens the original)
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<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="1820" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!smo-!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbe9b8206-a75e-4321-bc5f-bb986f4da791_1792x2240.p
The Festive Duck (opens the original)
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I grew up with the food of Calcutta’s Jews, but I had never heard of hanse mukmura. <img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="547" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fVyG!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fs
Of Madras (opens the original)
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To me, Madras had always meant only two things: curry powder and checked handkerchiefs. My father kept Madras handkerchiefs. I have some of them still. I grind my own curry powder, so I have never been attracted by store-bought curry powders although the name Madras certainly made the idea of a prepared powder more attractive to me.I had never thought very hard about these two products, and I never associated Madras with a Jewish community at all, until I happened upon a photograph posted on Ins
Hari Kabab (opens the original)
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We sat at the dining room table in our finest, eating in silence, contemplating the oncoming solemnity.The dish in front of us was Hari Kabab: a whole chicken, browned and slow-cooked with whole potatoes in turmeric, coriander and cumin, served with plain white rice and a cucumber and tomato salad. Festive enough for the occasion. Not heavy. Mild.That was the point. You could eat enough to carry you through the next day and still leave the table without feeling full.Yom Kippur begins this year a
The Kitchen Came First, Then God (opens the original)
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When Ravi (Kumar) Shemesh’s uncle died this month, the family cooked pappu charu.<img alt="" class="sizing-normal" height="928" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!ABWb!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post
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