Atorina Zomaya was raised in a close-knit Assyrian American family in Rogers Park that revolved around food. “Pretty much everything was homemade—breads, yogurt, cheeses—according to ancient family recipes,” she says.
“After learning more about the recipes that were recorded on these clay tablets, I realized not much has changed in modern Assyrian food culture,” notes Zomaya.
But Assyrian cuisine has one key ingredient that sets it apart from the rest of the Middle East: alcohol, found in the wine, wheat beer, and anise- flavored arak, brewed and distilled since ancient times.
Correction: An earlier draft of this story identified Assyrians as “Aramaic-speaking Syriac Christians of northern Iraq, northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran, and southeastern Turkey.” The Assyrian language is made up of Aramaic and Akkadian. The address was also incorrect: it should be 5481 N. Northwest Hwy.
5481 N. Northwest Hwy, 847-924-3751, assyriankitchen.com
