When I was a kid, one of my favourite things about Ramadan was the pre-fasting meal/ suhoor/ sehri/ whatever you call it in your culture. As a kid I obviously didn’t fast, but I just thought it was really fun to see everyone in the house get up in the night to eat. I liked being a part of it. It felt like a party.
In my childhood, Ramadan would hit in the winter months and one year during my holidays, we happened to visit Pakistan. Let me tell you – Ramadan was a totally different experience there.
For sehri (aka suhoor), the city’s best restaurants would host amazing deals on the most delicious food. As an 8 year old on vacation, there was no greater joy than loading in a car and driving to a restaurant for amazing eats at 3am.
With summer break in full swing, many kids are likely expressing an interest in joining in on the pre-fasting meal. So even at home, you can make it a little special for them. Serve up colourful drinks in vintage milk bottles and top them off with striped paper straws. Put out fruit in berry baskets, lined with patterned tissue, and you’ll definitely have your kids squealing in delight. (To be honest, this kind of presentation even has me squealing in delight.)
Every culture has a traditional milk drink that they make in Ramadan so take inspiration from that. For me, it was always about Roohafza and what we called, “milk-soda”, which is a too-good-to-be-true concoction of milk and ice cream soda (Pakola brand to be exact.) Not very healthy but YOLO.
Once on a visit to Saudi Arabia I also had a local milk based drink that tasted incredible though I haven’t the slightest clue of what it’s called. It was basically sweetened milk with slivered almonds and other goodies added to it. Since a lot of great fruits (like mango!) are in season right now, milkshakes would also be a great option.
What are some milk drinks popular during Ramadan in your culture?
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