IFTAR FUN & RAMADAN DECOR

I’m taking a quick break from this hectic Saturday to have a little snack in my room while S and his family prepare a ginormous iftar meal that could probably feed twenty people when we’re probably having eight guests. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Ramadan is the holy month is Islam when muslims fast (i.e. consume no food or water) from before sunrise to sunset. It’s a beautiful, prayerful month for the Muslims I know, and I really enjoy it for several reasons. First, I love to decorate for special occasions. As a Christian American who’s used to super commercialized holidays, I show my support by decorating the house and putting up things like an “iftar time” announcement! It’s turned into a pretty serious hobby; I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated to Ramadan and Eid decoration ideas.

The second and favorite thing about Ramadan for me is the mouth-watering, unparalleled array of food. Oh, the food! I get hungry just thinking about all the amazing food, I write as I reach for my fourth caramel delite out of my secret girl scout cookie stash. So, for those of you who don’t know, the word “iftar” literally means the breaking of the fast. That means, when Muslims break fast at the end of a long day, and especially after a grueling fifteen hours of sunlight during the summer, there has to be some amazing food to fill those grumbling tums. Seriously, foodies, if you don’t have any Muslim friends, you need to make some fast and partake in the mind-blowing culinary phenomenon that is an iftar.

Iftars are usually tons of dishes of food. I calculate one 16-inch platter-sized (i.e. huge) meal for every two people. A lot of these meals also involve a lot of time, and often days in advance, of food preparation. So, despite the hunger and the thirst, there are so many tasty treats to look forward to at the end of the day. I know that, for me, the memories of late-night dinners with friends, lounging in our moon-lit back yard under our grape vine trellis, is priceless.

Below are some photos of our food and gatherings! Enjoy!

A lower-key iftar with just S's immediate family: lentil soup, which is a very common iftar appetizer, with just one entree!

Can you handle all this goodness? This iftar had lentil soup again, with fattoush (a popular iftar salad), stuffed grape leaves, and mouttabal (i.e. chopped-up grilled eggplant with lots of yummy things mixed in).

I'm going into a food coma just looking at this photo. From closest to farthest, we have kibbeh, makloubeh (which exactly translates to "upside down" because the recipe requires flipping), my pretty Le Creuset is hiding a bomb ass meal called shish barak which is meat dumplings in yogurt sauce, then there's ground beef-stuffed zuchini, and finally stuffed grape leaves with the most tender lamb on top. 

We made only an average-sized meal (i.e. still more than enough) because we invited our guests very last minute. This is a famous dish called kebseh, which is basically very spiced chicken and rice. We also added little plates of moutabbal on the side.

I am absolutely enamored by this fetteh, which is a word that you can translate as "torn up" because you tear pieces of flat bread into little bits before you pour an amazing yogurt sauce over them. I'm used to mummy-in-law's fetteh which has chicken on top, but this version that our friend from Damascus makes is vegetarian with pomegranate seeds and melted semini (purified butter) on top. There's also chickpeas and parsley.