Ramadan starts on Monday. , the police are getting ready, but so too are the neighbors. Each country seems to have its own Ramadan iftar traditions, in which dates are a mainstay: Kalustyan’s (in Manhattan) orders 5,000 pounds of dates for the Ramadan month.
Back in Bangladesh, when Aziz Osmani moved from an island village to a high school in nearby Chittagong, he had his first taste of Rooh Afza, something of an invented Ramadan tradition in the subcontinent—it’s a scarlet syrup first concocted by an Indian beverage company in 1907, consisting of rosewater, mint, cilantro, watermelon, carrot and other ingredients in a top-secret ratio. ....“When combined with chilled milk, it’s a wonderful start to iftar,” or the meal at dusk breaking the fast, says Osmani.
Shaikh, a Manhattan corporate lawyer, quoted in the same survey of NYC Ramadan food and traditions that appears in Edible Manhattan says, “This year, I’ll probably just break fast with coffee and a piece of chocolate at my desk.”
Any other foods or Ramadan rituals Kensington locals relish? Or NYC modifications? Once I saw a week's parade of lambs being led to slaughter in Kairouan, Tunisia. What a trip if that were to happen here. It would certainly keep the 66th Precinct busy!