{"id":665580,"date":"2026-05-13T00:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665580\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T00:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T00:54:13","slug":"asian-heritage-month-40-years-of-flavour-and-family-at-new-asian-village-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665580\/","title":{"rendered":"Asian Heritage Month: 40 years of flavour and family at New Asian Village – Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Opening about 40 years ago, New Asian Village<\/a> is one of Edmonton\u2019s oldest Indian franchises.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The current manager of the westside location, Sonia Devangodi, was only six when her dad opened the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad would put together a plate with naan, butter chicken, daal, all in a platter. It was North Indian cuisine<\/a> only at that time when my dad decided to open up New Asian Village,\u201d Devangodi explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, we offer South Indian cuisine, Chinese cuisine (and) Tandoori cuisine. All that has been added to my dad\u2019s legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Desiring a better life for himself and his family, Devagodi\u2019s father Harmeet Kapur immigrated to Edmonton from New Delhi, India in the 1970s.<\/p>\n

Like many immigrants who settle in Canada, he started from scratch in a new country with little money and little stability.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy dad was a Yellow Cab taxi driver,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But driving a taxi wasn\u2019t lucrative enough to support his mom, wife, and, later, his three daughters so Kapur began looking for more work.<\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of mine could not cook, and he was looking for a cook,\u201d Kapur said.<\/p>\n

Food was not his passion, but it was a job Kapur had held overseas to make end\u2019s meet.<\/p>\n

According to Devangodi, he loved talking to people, so he decided to team up with his friend to start a new restaurant.<\/p>\n

However, his would-be business associate backed out midway through development.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe kind of walked away and let my dad run the show,\u201d Devangodi said.<\/p>\n

Devagodi says Kapur persevered because he needed to support his family financially.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did it to survive. Driving a taxi for 12 hours and coming to the restaurant,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe worked really hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The city\u2019s food scene in the 1970s and 1980s was nothing like today \u2014 at the time, there weren\u2019t many Indian restaurants.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere was hesitation. He was unsure. It was something he walked into, not knowing if this was going to work for Edmonton,\u201d Devangodi said.<\/p>\n

The original location opened up on Saskatchewan Drive in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not easy. People didn\u2019t know anything about Indian food,\u201d Kapur said.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"The<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tThe original location of New Asian Village on Saskatchewan Drive in south Edmonton.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFiles\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Devangodi said it took a lot to convince Edmontonians who weren\u2019t familiar with the food to give it a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just very different for people. As soon as they tasted it, they became regular customers,\u201d Devangodi said.<\/p>\n

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Satwinder Bains, former director of the South Asian Studies Institute and professor emeritus at the University of the Fraser Valley, says while this kind of immigrant story is not new \u2014 not everyone gets a successful outcome.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tMore on Perspectives
\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cComing in and starting fresh is not a new story, but it is fraught with challenges and successes,\u201d Bains explained. \u201cPeople come in wondering where the opportunities are and where I can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says many immigrants would like to continue building skills and education from their home country, but circumstances may prevent some from doing so.<\/p>\n

Bains adds she admires Kapur\u2019s resilience, persistence and motivation.<\/p>\n

She says an immigration boom began between the \u201970s and \u201980s and that at the time, the South Asian population wasn\u2019t prominent in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only did you have to be daring and tentatively go into places other people are not going into, and not having this data, you know, \u2018will this work work or not work?’\u201d Bains said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the first kind of maverick to put this on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bains says food is a great start to bridge cultures and communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is enticing. Beautiful opportunities for people to engage because everyone loves to eat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n

Devangodi credits the food, mixed with her father\u2019s enticing personality, as part of the reasons why the franchise became so popular.<\/p>\n

Being one of the first Indian restaurants was a bonus.<\/p>\n

Since then, the franchise has taken new forms and new locations.\u00a0The original no longer exists, but it has expanded with three locations in the Edmonton area.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNew Asian Village restaurant founder Harmeet Kapur with his wife and three daughters, who now run the three locations in the Edmonton area.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSupplied\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Each restaurant is owned by one of Kapur\u2019s daughters.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s taken a step back now. It\u2019s me and my sisters that run the show,\u201d Devangodi said.<\/p>\n

The Kapur family is hoping to keep their history while building a legacy, one dish at a time.<\/p>\n

May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada<\/a> and the theme for 2026 is \u201cHonouring Asian Canadians: Stories that Built Canada,\u201d recognizing the contributions Asian Canadians have made to the nation\u2019s social, cultural, and economic life across generations.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Opening about 40 years ago, New Asian Village is one of Edmonton\u2019s oldest Indian franchises. The current manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[245609,49,48,23752,196791,245610,245611,41685],"class_list":["post-665580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-asian-heritage-month","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-restaurants","tag-indian-cuisine","tag-new-asian-village","tag-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}