This talk traces the journeys of Baghdadi Jewish communities across Asia, beginning with merchant networks that linked Baghdad to port cities such as Bombay, Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore, and Kobe. It then broadens to consider the wider routes that connected Jewish life across the Indian Ocean and beyond, including overland and maritime corridors that shaped long-standing communities in the region.

Using food as a guiding thread, the lecture explores how recipes traveled alongside people, adapting to new ingredients and local tastes while maintaining a sense of continuity. Kitchens emerge as spaces where tradition and change met—where familiar practices were preserved even as new influences were absorbed.

As the story moves into the mid-twentieth century and beyond, the talk considers how these culinary traditions evolved as communities relocated and re-formed. In doing so, it offers a vivid and accessible account of how food can illuminate larger histories of migration, connection, and cultural resilience.