Ramadan from a Minnesota Perspective

It is about half way through the month of Ramadan and I thought I'd post about the observance of this Islamic month--which many of you probably know as a fasting month.  Since my husband is Muslim, I have had an bird's eye view of the observance of this month from many different angles.

Okay--some of the basics to know.  Ramadan is actually the name of a month  in the Islamic calendar.  One of the pillars of Islam is the obligation to fast from sunrise to sunset during this month. Did you know observant Muslims who are smokers also have to abstain from smoking for that period?  This month also includes more donations to charities by Muslims as well as more social gatherings to break their fast and an opportunity for communal prayer.  These are called Tarawih prayers (taraweeh) and they happen at night during which long parts are recited from the Qur'an.   The pre-dawn meal that most Muslims get up to eat (if they want to function during the next work day!) is called suhoor and the meal to "break your fast" is called iftaar.  The lantern (fanoos) is the symbol of Ramadan (at least in Egypt).  This one is hanging in our porch and I light it at sunset.

If you have ever lived in a predominantly Muslim country during this month, you'll find that the whole month of Ramadan has a decidedly different rhythm from all other months.  Particularly, there are lots of accommodations to help people with fasting.  I noticed that people in Egypt would come to work later and leave earlier or maybe just move office hours to the evening--after the iftaar. Soccer games were scheduled for after iftaar, too.  Likewise with schools--the evening classes I was teaching at the American University in Cairo (AUC) were moved much later in the evening so that a late afternoon and early evening were set aside for people to get home to rest and enjoy iftaar.  This meant I was teaching until 11:00 p.m. at night!

The streets in Cairo come alive after iftaar. The evenings are the time for people to come out to do their shopping, visit friends, go to birthday parties, whatever couldn't be done in the day.  Or, if they stay home, there are specials on television--including serious drama series (like the life of Nasser or Isfahan, the singer) or game shows or stories of 1001 Nights (Alf Leila wa Leila).  Basically, the day gets tipped upside down with lots of activities simply shifted to the nighttime.  Streets are lit with colored lights, and special food is displayed and lanterns are hanging outside merchants' stores waiting to be bought.

Places like the bakery El-Abd would be flooded with buyers, too.

If you were living in a Muslim household (like I was), you fasted along with the family.  It would have been just too insensitive (in my opinion) to have eaten in front of everyone. The last two hours before iftaar were definitely the hardest for me--so I usually took a book and laid down during that period and usually fell asleep for part of it.  The food had been long prepared (Mama would have been up and cooking from early morning) and waiting to be devoured (the only verb that describes it!) Surprisingly to me, however, when the call to prayer came (if you couldn't hear the cannon blast from the Citadel--now on the radio), my husband's family didn't run to eat, but broke their fast with a couple of dates and went to pray in the street-side mosque by the building.  When they arrived back, however, the food would be inhaled!  There is a lot of food eaten during Ramadan--some of the Egyptian favorites that I like are the fruit soup you can use to break your fast (khoshaf), macaroni with bechamel sauce (macarona bilbechamela), and the desserts, especially qata'if  (no equivalent in English--but it's a small circle of risen dough stuffed with nuts (preferably) fried and then covered in sugar/lemon syrup.)  Rich, yes, but fabulous when they are still warm.

For most Muslims in Minnesota, the observance of Ramadan is largely a private, indoor occasion that is spent with family or Muslim friends at someone's home with occasional gatherings in community centers, apartment party rooms or at mosques for special dinners with programs or the Tarawih prayers. But if you want to get the 'street' atmosphere of Ramadan in Minnesota in a public location, it's almost impossible!  The closest thing is to go to Holyland in Northeast or the Marina restaurant on Lowry and University in N.E. Minneapolis.  At the Marina, the Egyptian owner puts up a big tent and serves a decent buffet of food from a variety of cuisines.  People sit around in the huge tent talking while children run around and the youth play soccer in the parking lot.  This is just a glimpse into the feeling of the nights of Ramadan.

Mixed Bag Book Club

Four years ago, some of my previous students-turned- friends were looking for a way to stay in contact and continue their learning.  I thought a book group would fit both needs, and so "Mixed Bag" book club began.

Now, admittedly, some of us leaned more toward the social aspect while others were interested in reading.  The group has room for both although we're tending to be more social than literary.  Here we are out for dinner at a local Asian restaurant. In the picture below, we are at a local art exhibit where our artist had one of her drawings displayed.  Most of the time, we meet in the community room of a local Lunds/Byerlys supermarket, but occasionally we get together at one of our homes to reconnect, eat and celebrate!

Among our group, we have an ex-librarian, a chef, two English teachers, a counselor, a dental hygienist, an artist and a computer programmer--quite an eclectic group.  Choosing a genre of book that fits all of us is indeed the challenge. Some are mystery lovers and fiction aficionados while others non-fiction buffs, armchair travelers or cross-cultural connoisseurs.  One thing that we usually agree on is that the book should be on the short side--around 200 pages if possible, but hopefully not more than 300.  This is actually the biggest challenge:  a quality book that is on the brief side!  We have had some success with that formula--even some books under 200 pages.  Here are some of our favorite books to date (though never unanimous favorites!):

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (1st Book--152 pages!)
I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson
Nickeled and Dimed in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
China Dog by Judy Fong Bates
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Dreams of My Russian Summers by Andrei Makine
Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb (144 pages!)
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (330 pages)
Loving Frank by Nancy Horan


Recently, we are passing around two books (thereby reducing costs and long waits for books, but alas, never having everyone on the same page, so to speak.):  The Piano Teacher and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  We had no idea that the latter book would become a movie and turn into such a desired read (the list at the public library is miles long!)  I was just thinking, ahh, a mystery. 


I am somewhat surprised but glad that the Mixed Bag Book Club has continued this long.  It does take the effort of at least one person to pick a date and set the place. We all try to contribute book ideas--but two or three active members will help to keep a book club going.  Also, having the option to just meet at the community room is nice when no one has the time to clean the house or make a dish.  Let's toast another four years to the "Mixed Bag" book club.

Unknown Garden Veggies

Unknown eggplant variety

With such a warm spring and, now, long hot summer, we are having an extra long growing season for Minnesota.  I always plant a garden and sometimes my exotic choices like okra and eggplant can't really mature in our usual window of growth.

However, this year the eggplants are already ripening on the vine.  Problem is . . . I don't recognize this variety as any kind of eggplant I know!!  I know the big, firm purplish eggplant we can find in the co-op, or the skinny little purple ones I grew last year, but here is an eggplant of a different shape and color.  No, these are not tomatoes--they are eggplants.  They have a lovely shade of orange-yellow with subtle stripes of green.  I hope these are ripe and I shouldn't have waited for them to turn another color.  Once I can identify them, I can figure out how to cook them!  If you know the variety or have a recipe for preparing them, I'd sure appreciate the help.

Here is this year's first big, ripe tomato sitting on the deck railing.  Last year we had lots of good luck with tomatoes, too.  These were the heirloom tomato variety.





Okay--I promise not to blog about vegetables for awhile.

Walking in the Woods with Oliver and Ahmed

The breeze sprang up and the humidity disappeared--ahh, a morning for a walk in the woods.  Just down the block from our house we have a small park where dogs can run off leash.  Well, our beagle more or less meanders, stopping to sniff every weed and leaf.  The breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay and freshened up the usual musty smells of a closed-off wooded area.  The dog's tail was up and his ears were back.

We had leaf hats on today--Ahmed getting excited about whipping off the top of a large weed with his whip-like branch, jabbing it and then making all sorts of temporary wearables with it.  Quite amusing.  This particular leaf also works well to swat mosquitoes should you wander into this glade on a still, muggy day.
I took a picture, of course.  The beagle kept sniffing along, oblivious to our silliness.  Maybe the other man walking his dog through the same little patch of trees wondered a bit, but he just smiled and kept up with his long-legged canine.  Just a sniff and a quick turn from Oliver to acknowledge the other dog--then back to work on a trail that never seems to end.

Lovely August morning.  Just a week until Ramadan . . .