Hey, it's Curiosity Reported Adriana Cardona McGigab. So there is this undeniable fact about Chicago.

Our city is home to amazing South Asian food.

Chicago's metropolitan area actually has the second largest Indian population and the fourth largest

Pakistani community in the U.S. And some of the best Indian and Pakistani food is on Devon Avenue

in this one strip that goes almost a mile from about California on the western edge to Damon on the east.

The area is known as Little India, located in the West Ridge neighborhood.

Beverly Kumar is from Mumbai, and though she lives in suburban Chicago now,

she loves coming to this area whenever she can.

If you want Mughlai cuisine of Delhi and Lucknow,

you go to Tiffin restaurant or Delhi Darbar.

Oh my God.

You know, if you want South Indian cuisine, all of that,

you go to Uruswati.

Visiting Little India takes Beverly back home.

Knowing that just 10 miles away, 14 miles away from my house, there is an essence.

It's nostalgia for me with the familiar sights, smells, sounds, you know, and flavors of home. And I feel like I never moved away after all.

Yeah, that strip, Little India, is not just about the food. You walk down the street and you'll see

colorful window displays with mannequins, wearing sari dresses for the women, and patani suits for the men.

The area is a hub for dozens of South Asian businesses, where people like Beverly can connect

with the flavors of their homeland, so much that one of our listeners, Manja Sahu, wanted to know how did Devon Avenue become a primarily

Indian community? There's a lot to that answer, lots to unpack here. We'll be talking about

who lived there before South Asians, how the community continues to evolve, and what makes it vibrant today?

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