Nylah Iqbal Muhammad

I'm a James Beard Award-nominated food and travel writer with bylines in Travel + Leisure and Vogue. I write about no-fly travel — trains and ships for me! In my work, I explore culture, politics, food, history, and how they all intersect. 

Stories

Eater Twin Cities •

As an Indigenous Barbecue Restaurant Takes Shape, Owamni’s Founder Has Even Bigger Moves on the Horizon

Take a moment to imagine it: the rich, woody scents of smoked turkey, bison ribs, and whole antelope cooked low and slow wafting down Franklin Avenue. If all goes well, the Twin Cities won’t have to fantasize about it. Chef Sean Sherman’s latest project, Šhotá Indigenous BBQ by Owamni, aims to bring Indigenous barbecue to the neighborhood very soon.
It’s part of a series of big moves for Sherman’s nonprofit organization NATIFS (North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems).
Eater Chicago •

In Pilsen, Sleep Walk Chocolateria Presents a Rich and Decadent Story Powered by Tradition

For Día de Muertos, there’s an ofrenda recounting the memories of the deceased loved ones of the employees at Pilsen’s Sleep Walk Chocolateria. “Día de los Muertos is mostly a journey for elder ones that are no longer with us; to keep their memories alive,” says Jorge Fierros, the chocolate program manager at Sleep Walk, a division of Dark Matter Coffee. “The fact that we remember them every year — that keeps their essence alive,” he says. “
Andscape •

Crabber Tia Clark challenges what it means to fish, crab, and hunt as a Black woman

When I first met Tia Clark, she told me she had recently hunted an alligator with a crossbow in the swamps of South Carolina. I saw the Gullah Geechee woman as a role model, a Black woman using her passion and athleticism to pursue a goal I’d been chasing — food sovereignty. For Clark, owner of Casual Crabbing with Tia, it’s like a call from the sea. “I don’t feel I’m choosing this. I feel like this is what I have to do,” she told Andscape.
Vox •

Food is no longer a main character on The Bear

When the food stopped being exciting, the show followed suit. Instead of being a show about how cooking and eating bring people together, it became like the same old New American tasting menu fare. It reminded me of the RS Benedict essay “Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny,” about the stripping of authentic sexuality and sensuality from film. Except in The Bear, every dish is beautiful and no one is hungry (or horny, for that matter but that’s a different article).
Vox •

How real is Shōgun?

Because of the fierceness of the warrior class and Japan’s distance from Europe, the Portuguese didn’t have the ability to conquer Japan through force, the way they did in places like Brazil and parts of India. Instead, they used religious conversion and trade to try to accomplish a cultural and economic conversion, exploiting the fractious nature of the warring lords to expand their trade routes. In fact, Japan still bears marks of Portuguese contact.
Sweet July •

For Reem Assil, Food Is A Tool For Palestinian Liberation

Many across the world are seeing the horror of the occupation of Palestine for the first time. But for Palestinians like Assil, this reality is one they were born into—a reality shaping both their fondest memories and deepest pains.

“I went to Gaza once in 1994, and that was a pivotal moment in my understanding of my own identity,” Assil says. She was 11 years old, and Israeli forces were dismantling settlements in the Gaza Strip after destroying all the infrastructure.
Mondoweiss •

The role of food in the movement for Palestine

For Reem Assil, a Palestinian-Syrian social justice activist, chef, and owner of Reem’s California, food is integral to resistance. She organized for ten years prior to becoming a chef. Community organizing is a key pillar of her culinary philosophy now, with many projects, including her worker-owned co-op restaurants, a groundbreaking commitment in the culinary world where private ownership abounds. “People always say that I was a former organizer turned chef, and I say, ‘No, food just happens to be the tool in my toolkit through which I’m organizing people now,’” Assil tells Mondoweiss.
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