Food is a central component of the holy month of Ramazan. Believers fast from dawn to dusk, rising before dawn everyday for the pre-fast suhoor meal and finishing the fast with an iftar meal as the sun comes down. A traditional iftar menu comprises water, dates, fruits and juice. The belief is that Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) ate three dates to break his fast. Muslims around the world often break their fast with a small portion of food at the time of sunset, following a proper meal after the maqhrib prayer.
Food is a central component of the holy month of Ramazan. Believers fast from dawn to dusk, rising before dawn everyday for the pre-fast suhoor meal and finishing the fast with an iftar meal as the sun comes down. A traditional iftar menu comprises water, dates, fruits and juice. The belief is that Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) ate three dates to break his fast. Muslims around the world often break their fast with a small portion of food at the time of sunset, following a proper meal after the maqhrib prayer.
With more than ten hours spent without any nourishment, food that replenishes the body is a vital part of the menu. However, meals tend to vary from one place to another. Here’s how Muslims across the globe break their fast with different meals, but with the same religious fervour.
Asia
Pakistan
In Pakistan, chole, jalebis, pakoras, kebabs, dahi bare, along with refreshing juices are famous iftar meals.
Some families combine iftar and dinner into one meal, while others prefer a gap between the two.
Iran
Iranians traditionally break their fast with dates and a cup of tea or hot water. Tea, bread, cheese, fresh vegetables, Zoolbia and Bamieh (two traditional Persian sweets coated in sugar syrup), Halva, Sholeh Zard (a sweet Iranian dessert made of rice, sugar, and saffron), Ash Reshteh, Haleem, as well as various kinds of soups are commonly served during Iftar time.
Ash reshteh is a type of ash (thick winter soup) made commonly in Iran. The ingredients used are reshteh (thin noodles), kashk (a whey-like dairy product), herbs such as parsley, spinach, dill, spring onion ends and other ingredients.
Shami is the food that people in the northern Iran cook by frying small pieces of dough which is a mixture of meat and split yellow peas. They often serve this food during Ramazan beside Iranian bread, cheese, green herbs and chai (Black tea).
India
A staple starter for Muslim communities throughout the south of India is kanji - a broth that consists of rice and lentils, cooked with a special masala made of cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, tomato, onions and minced meat, garnished with coriander leaves. Kanji is famous for being extremely filling and nutritious; a food that fortifies the body for what can be an exhausting month. It is usually accompanied by samosas and mint chutney.
Moreover, many dishes eaten in India for iftar originated from various parts of the Middle East, and were brought to the subcontinent by traders and immigrants after the Mughal conquests. The food eaten today is a mix of Arab and Persian flavours, infused with regional spices, with recipes handed down from generation to generation. Haleem, for example, has Arabic influences, but found itself a part of local cuisine through a strong Middle Eastern cultural presence in cities like Hyderabad. It’s one of the best sources of protein and consists of soaked wheat, barley and lentils, added to a spicy, rich meat korma, consisting of extremely tender meat.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, for instance, an iftar meal tends to include soups and onion-based meat curries, kebabs and pulao.
In Southeast Asian countries where dates may not be as readily available, other sugary treats are often consumed. Indonesians, for example, buy traditional sweet snacks for breaking fast in Ramazan in Jakarta.
The Middle East
The falafel, a common street food in the Middle East, is a light, nutritious snack that many families serve at iftar. Usually, eaten with pita bread and humus, it consists of ground chickpeas and coriander, mixed with garlic and spices and toasted with sesame seeds. It provides a boost of energy without making a person feel lethargic.
Moreover, Qatayef - a sort of sweet dumpling filled with cream or nuts, is an Arab dessert commonly served during the month of Ramazan.
Africa
Egypt
People in Egypt, on the other hand, love kunafa, an angel-hair type of pasta, which is incorporated into Arabic sweets and enjoyed in the evening after the fast is broken.
Moreover, since it is an arid and morbidly hot region, people usually prefer cool beverages and fruits during iftar to suppress the scalding heat.
Somalia
One of the preferred items is camel, both as source of calcium (its milk) and of protein (its meat). Camel milk, Somalis believe, is the most nutritious of the animal milks they drink. 
Since many Somalis are nomads, back home they often eat a popular type of jerky called otka - preferably camel meat, that is dried and then fried in butter and spices. Its preparation allows the meat to be preserved for a long time, which is also ideal to take on long trips.
Mobile apps are helping fasters during Ramazan
A number of apps have come up to help them keep track of everything from food recipes and prayers timings to the timings of suhur (morning meal) and iftar (evening meal). Many of these apps have already notched high downloads and many more are getting launched to cater to the needs of the fasters.
Here’s your guide to the best ones:
Google’s Ramazan dashboard
When Google puts its mind to a problem, it usually comes up with an all-in-one solution. Its new Ramazan site is another such creation. Called ‘My Ramadan Companion’, the site provides a rainbow of information, from food recipes to suhur and iftar timings, as well as entertainment options in the form of a YouTube collection that one can watch while fasting. The page also lists decorators, health tips and links to specific apps to get things done.
Find mosques
For those battling deadlines and on the move, Salatuk is very useful. The app sends notifications about prayer timings and alerts the user about the nearest mosques through Global Positioning System. It’s also possible to find the Qibla (the direction of Mecca, to which Muslims turn to pray) through this.
Share greetings
Muslim Pro app is one of the most comprehensive and popular apps for Ramazan this year. It offers audio recitations of prayers and fully translated Quran besides audio and visual calls for prayer. It is equipped with a calendar of major Islamic dates that helps in estimating dates of Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Zuha. Apart from this, there are 100 e-greeting cards on the app that can be shared across platforms.
Talking food
For those eschewing food for the better part of the day, it is important to break fast with a clean, healthy meal. Since going out is not an option for all office-goers, food delivery apps, such as Foodpanda and TinyOwl, are offering Ramazan delicacies from legacy eateries at their desks. There are also apps for those who prefer cooking at home to takeaways - Ramazan Recipes, in Arabic, and Ramazan Iftaar Recipes, in English, are two of these. Those fond of Pakistani cuisine can try the Ramazan Recipe app, which is available in English, too.
Teachings traditions
Parents wishing to teach their children about Islamic traditions can turn to apps such as Salah. It teaches kids Salah (prayer) and Wudu (ablution) through animated characters, with audio in multiple languages, including Arabic, English and Urdu. This app has turned tales about Prophet Muhammad into animated videos. The only snag is that the app is available only on Apple’s iOS store, not on Android yet.
Thomas Jefferson Iftar
The first White House iftar was held by President Thomas Jefferson on 9 December 1805.
Jefferson’s guest was Sidi Soliman Mellimelli, an envoy from the bey (chieftain) of Tunis who spent six months in Washington. The context of Mellimelli’s visit to the United States was a tense dispute over piracy on American merchant vessels by the Barbary states and the capture of Tunisian vessels trying to run an American blockade of Tripoli.
Mellimelli arrived during Ramazan, and Jefferson, when he invited the envoy to the president’s house, changed the meal time from the usual hour of 3:30 p.m. to “precisely at sunset” in deference to the man’s religious obligation.
Jefferson’s knowledge of Islam likely came from his legal studies of natural law. In 1765, Jefferson purchased a two-volume English translation of the Quran for his personal library, a collection that became, in 1815, the basis of the modern Library of Congress.
Courtesy US State Department website
