On a short block of Butler Avenue, just a few steps north of Santa Monica Boulevard, dueling generators rumble through the day from two new food trucks, parked on opposite sides of the streets, showcasing the cooking and traditions of Central Asia, the vast, mostly landlocked region comprised of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan.
While the Westside’s more hopping blocks of Sawtelle Boulevard reflect the pop-dining trends conquering modern-day Taipei and Tokyo, an ancient cuisine recalling nomads, farmers, Silk Road traders, and horse-backed warriors is reemerging on a small corridor just up the street.
The Central Asian sub-region is a massive expanse, with evidence of human habitation going back at least 45,000 years, criss-crossed and influenced by eons of cultures and histories both heralded and forgotten.
Its primarily Turkic modern-day populations have been significantly changed through millennia of trading, travel, and conquest. Its culture, customs, cuisine, and bloodlines have been heavily impacted over time from the neighboring regions of Iran, Russia, Afghanistan, and western China.
In today’s United States, Chicago is frequently pinpointed as the emergent epicenter of Central Asian migration, where a growing population of both male and female truck drivers from the sub-region, sometimes known collectively as “The ‘Stans,” are concentrated.