The pride of Nashville: honky tonks and… Halal lamb? The area of the city known as Little Kurdistan contains a whole culinary universe that many people—even those who live in the city—are unaware of. In this episode of Gravy, we partner with Jakob Lewis of the podcast Neighbors from Nashville Public Radio. Jakob takes us on a tour of the Kurdish part of Nashville with Shirzad Tayyar, a resident who’s made it his mission to make his corner of the city better known by everyone.

You can listen to more of Jakob Lewis’ podcast, Neighbors, here.

The Southern Foodways Alliance’s Ava Lowrey has been hard at work on a film about Little Kurdistan, which will premiere at our Summer Symposium in Nashville in late June.

Here’s a trailer for the film:

Little Kurdistan – Trailer from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

You can read the article in the local Nashville newspaper The Tennessean about Shirzad Tayyar’s tours here.

You can also read more about the Kurdish community in Nashville, with this post by Eva Abdullah about the significance of the Newroz holiday.