Some of the things I eat during Ramadan in Rome

Blog readers Jannah, Oharlie, Brad and Xinyun has asked me to blog about typical food that is eaten during Ramadan. So this post is dedicated to you all

While the types of food consumed during Ramadan differs from country to country, the one thing that I always see being eaten during the fasting month is dates.

Dates are the fruits of a type of palm trees. These are the staple food in the Middle East, but you’ll see various types of them being sold out of Egypt such as in Singapore, Malaysia and even Rome especially during Ramadan because of the high level of potassium in dates, making it a perfect food to have after fasting for long hours.

When I was a young girl though, I remember that one of the first times seeing it, it was very daunting for me.

I mean, look at it. It doesn’t look very appetizing with its insect-brown colour, and wrinkly skin, it looked quite scary for a 6 year old. And I’ve always had a mini phobia with dried fruits because some of them reminded me of nose droppings (I’m not going to explain more). But with my parents persuading me on, I gave it a try and thought that it didn’t taste bad! In fact, it was peculiarly sweet.

I still think that eating dates can look very unglamorous, with the spitting out of the seeds and all, but eventually, it wasn’t so bad to eat.

Another item that I see very frequently during Ramadan in Singapore is the Air Kathira.

This is a peculiar looking milky-drink that has black seeds which resembles tadpole eggs. Which interestingly enough, makes me very curious to try it out. But those are actually basil seeds and I love having this drink because of the nice, satisfying feeling when chewing the soft seeds.

It can come in various flavours from plain milk, avocado, mint, rose … Personally I find it even better than drinking Bubble teas and I could be wrong here, but its a pity that it’s not sold during non Ramadan days. Bubble tea operators have nothing to fear … for now

But for Rome though, with the majority of the population being Roman Catholics, Ramadan feels more nondescript. I didn’t really notice any particular special food being made. I mean, I see kebabs, and Arabic sweets and such, but you could get them any time of the year.

But in any case, so far, here are some the food that we’ve prepared for Sahur and Iftar. I didnt manage to snap all of them though because I was too hungry or just too sleepy

This is Farro

The main ingredient is wheat grain and its soaked, boiled and drained and you could mix it with anything you like. Cart likes his with chopped boiled egg, tomato, and cheese, drizzled with olive oil. While I like to add mine with tuna and corn.

Its best eaten cold and its a wonderful summer food.

This is Piadina

Piadina is a type of flatbread which is good to keep in the fridge for those days when you want to have something quick to eat. Just put it on the hot plate, sprinkle some stracchino cheese, some sliced tomatoes and some rughetta and a few minutes later, you have a decent meal.

This is just a couple of samosa and salad that we quickly cooked since Cart wanted to have pizza afterwards.

So it was just a simple, light meal to tide over till the pizza. By the way, the samosas were bought in a Bangladeshi shop not too far away from where were live! What a nice find! For 3.50 euro for a pack of 10, it’s a bit expensive though.

Here is one of my favourite thing to cook, Veggie Lasagna!

What’s strange is that I love this veggie lasagna better than the one with beef even. Its tastier! Made of a mix of ricotta cheese, spinach, mozzarella cheese, zucchini in tomato sauce, I just love eating it. Maybe I’ll show you how to make it in a future blog post. Its quite simple to make

Finally but not least, here is the Couscous that Cart made yesterday

This is one of Cart’s favourite food to eat – couscous with vegetables and chickpeas. Its quite a hassle making this though, with the long amount of time taken to prepare it. But its worth it in the end to tuck into a bowl of couscous.

And with that, I’m going to end this post abruptly because its such a torture writing a food entry when I’m fasting.