My first Ramadan in the UAE (Pt. 2)

My co-workers told me that I must experience iftar, whatever that was. Since I had never heard of Ramadan, I had, a fortiori never heard of iftar. Back then, the UAE weekends were Thursday and Friday, so the nights to go out were Wednesday night and Thursday night. One of the local organizations had posted about our building signs: ‘Come to an iftar presentation, “The True Meaning of Ramadan,” by a famous Islamic scholar.’ Naturally, I signed up.

On that first Thursday night of Ramadan, Some co-workers and I proceeded to a tent erected by a Hilton Hotel. Inside, we saw a buffet, but weren’t sure what to do. We followed the crowd who filled their plates. The buffet consisted of a selection of Arabic dishes I had seen before. There were the usual Arabic salads: tabouli, houmous, muttabel, & etc., then a section of hot foods: grilled meats, rice, and vegetables, and finally a section of desserts: Umm Ali, cakes, biscuits, and fruits. A typical diner filled several plates, as well as several glasses from the fountains of fruit juices. Then, as I followed, we all proceeded to our places, set our plates and glasses down, and sat with folded hands.

Finally, two minutes after sunset, the azan sounded, and everyone began to eat.

Then, a man in Western dress got up onto the podium and announced, ‘I’m very sorry, but our featured guest tonight called to say that the true meaning of Ramadan is family, and he will be spending this iftar with his family, and will not be able to come tonight.’

So we finished our iftars, and found that the cost was $5. Then we all went home.

I was still curious, so I went into the city centre before sunset on several evenings during my first Ramadan. Several restaurants had signs, ‘Iftar buffets,’ so, each evening, I selected one and went in. There was invariably a buffet, and, as I watched, people queued up at the buffet well before sunset and filled several plates and several glasses. I invariably proceeded to copy them.

As the azan sounded, everyone began to eat furiously, as they had in the Hilton tent. Once iftar was over, everyone left. The food was the same as that available on the menu, but I was able to pile up my plates with items that would have cost at least $10 a la carte, while the cost of the iftar was only $5, the same as at the Hilton. I found that most restaurants provided a $5 iftar as a promotion to fasting Muslims.

So I managed to gain a few pounds that Ramadan, but never saw any of the special foods only available during Ramadan. I later learned that these are provided in all the homes of Muslims during Ramadan, but are not generally served by restaurants. And I was not invited into any Muslim homes during my first Ramadan.