if they don’t be halal, you don’t eat it

June 15, 2018 4:19 AM

Ramadan nomnoms in 2018: It takes 350 chefs, 160 stewards and 450 supporting staff to prepare the iftar at Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Syrian refugees celebrate Ramadan in Lebanon: "little things that we miss like the Ramadan-exclusive drink jalaab."
Celebrity chef Vikas Khanna breaks his fast with the Muslim family who saved his life during the 1992 Mumbai riots: "When rioters visited their house... the family lied and said that Khanna too, was their son."

Iftar street food at Mohammad Ali Road in Mumbai: melt-in-the-mouth tikkas, kebabs, rolls, and mithai.

Ramzan in Kolkata: "during Sehri (pre-dawn meal) and in Iftar (sunset meal), the Zakaria street is at its liveliest."

"they have gathered to make ma’amoul": a traditional shortbread pastry that is consumed across the Arab world during Eid brings together local Jordanians and refugees from Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia.

Kids Explain Ramadan (from 2017): "if they don’t be halal, you don’t eat it"

(previously Ramadan in Dearborn MI)

posted by spamandkimchi (9 comments total)

I got so hungry making this post that I tapped out after just six countries.
posted by spamandkimchi at 4:25 AM on June 15, 2018 [9 favorites]

First day of Eid now, and the eatings have only just started. My strategy this year is absolutely no cookies/biscuits or else I won't survive past the first house.
posted by cendawanita at 6:29 AM on June 15, 2018 [2 favorites]

Last year my colleagues and I were fortunate enough to be invited to iftar celebrations by a client in Dubai. It was held in a lavish hotel over a large space that spanned both indoor and outdoor seating for I would guess easily 1,500 people. When the gong sounded, we were invited to explore the buffet.

I have never seen so much food in one place in my life.

From just memory there was: A station with like maybe a quarter of a lamb roasted, complete with huge pots of rice, cous cous, mint sauce. At least 2 stations with whole fish baked. Another general seafood station with grilled options like prawns. At least 2 curry stations with 6 pots of curry each, again with rice, two versions, naan, chutney. A vegetarian station with different salads, pasta salads, tabouleh. A few fruit stations scattered about with pineapples, watermelons, strawberries, nectarines, grapes, etc. Two "rooms" for dessert, which spanned from soft serve, cakes, brownies, tarts, cookies, jellies, mousse, petite fours. I'm sure I've forgotten 1/3 of it because it was so much food. And this was just in the indoor seating area. This was all duplicated again in the outdoor seating area.

I felt like I was in that scene in the Hunger Games where Katniss and Peeta were at the banquet at the President's palace during the victory tour. I tried to limit my servings to 2-3 bitefuls just so I could have a taste of everything and everything was delicious!

I never saw anything get lower than half full, everything was regularly replenished and replaced throughout the evening.

My mind just boggled at the idea that this was repeated every night and I wondered where all the leftovers went.
posted by like_neon at 6:36 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I wondered where all the leftovers went.
I would imagine that you were looking at some of them......
posted by Mr.Me at 9:26 AM on June 15, 2018

This is making me hungry! Eid Mubarak to all mefites celebrating!
posted by ellieBOA at 11:32 AM on June 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

Eid mubarak all! What a fabulous post, thanks so much for sharing. I went to my employer's Iftar dinner this year, which was a terrific night. My favourite part was talking with a husband and wife about their kids' attempts at fast. On the youngest: "Zara also does Ramadan. She fasts after breakfast, and then she fasts again after recess, and then fasts after lunch, and then after dinner every day!"

I asked a colleague of mine if you were expected to give up cigarettes as well, she explained that yes, you're meant to give up all vices, essentially. Knowing her husband is a heavy smoker, I said "What about Khalil?" She rolled her eyes. "He doesn't make it to 10am. He still thinks my parents don't know."
posted by smoke at 3:53 AM on June 16, 2018

Technically also it's because smoking means you're inhaling smoke, and the very technical part of what's allowed in a fast is that you're not supposed to insert anything up any orifice (hence, 1. There are communities like mine who'd have a long-standing belief that this means cleaning your ears is a no-no; 2. Absolutely well-meaning ppl ask religious scholars all the time if this means they can't get injections (you can, is a majority view that I hold to))

And yeah, leftovers and just the abundance of food. sometimes I think we just do Ramadhan wrong...
posted by cendawanita at 7:22 AM on June 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

I would imagine that you were looking at some of them......

Considering the extravagant environmental and economic waste I saw around Dubai I am pretty confident about my concern for how the leftovers were handled. But I think that’s a topic for another post so I’ll stop there.
posted by like_neon at 12:07 AM on June 17, 2018

I just had to pop in to say that I inherited my grandmother's ma'amoul molds, and she, I believe, inherited them from her grandmother, and they are ancient, hand carved wooden molds, and every year, I unpack them just to make cookies, and then carefully pack them away again. On one hand, it's sad, because now it's just me that's left making them, whereas when I was a child, the kitchen would be full of women chattering and talking in a variety of dialects and language. On the other hand, I have ma'amoul, so...
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:24 AM on June 19, 2018 [4 favorites]