Opinions | Columnists
An unforgettable Ramadan in Canada
The word "food" takes on a whole, new meaning when you fast for 14 long hours while the sun refuses to set even at eight in the night.
- By Mahmood Saberi, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:28 September 6, 2008
The word "food" takes on a whole, new meaning when you fast for 14 long hours while the sun refuses to set even at eight in the night.
Ramadan has come at a time of the Fall Equinox in Canada where the daylight hours stretch out in some places, to 15 exhausting hours. The word "Equinox" is Latin for getting equal lengths of daylight and darkness at this time of year.
I am living in Chinatown in downtown Toronto, a vibrant and colourful part of Canada's largest city, but an entirely wrong choice of place for someone who wishes to abstain from food from dawn to dusk.
Here, petite women can be seen through the large, glass windows of restaurants preparing warm, stomach-growling dumplings. You cannot help but notice the succulent, braised ducks showcased in the windows and watch the chefs dole out steaming bowls of noodle soup.
"Eat as much as you can. Don't be shy", screams a signboard on the pavement, advertising a lunch buffet for $13 (about Dh 42).
When you are fasting you also become acutely aware of the fact that most North Americans eat on the go. They munch on juicy, red apples while riding the streetcars. They slowly peel bananas at traffic lights and savour the sun-kissed fruit flown in from the tropics.
At every street corner you see groups of people undergoing what nutritionists here call "death by meat", munching on enormous hotdogs, slathered in relish and drowned in mustard and ketchup.
Unlike Dubai, where almost everyone carries a mobile in their hand and keeps looking at it, here everybody has a large tumbler of coffee in their right hand, from which they sip intermittently. The smell of richly brewed coffee can bring many a strong man to his knees, specially when you are dying of thirst as summer goes out with a bang in Canada.
Hole in the Ozone layer
The rays of the sun here burn you like tiny pinpricks as they come streaking down freely right through the huge hole in the ozone layer.
The night before Ramadan I went to Golden Orchard, the corner grocery store to pick up stuff for suhour, the pre-dawn meal. I couldn't find a single date, though some really exotic fruits were racked up on the fruit stands. There were "honey dates", but these things were light green in colour and were as large as limes. There was an enormous fruit called "sweet sop", but I didn't have the inclination to investigate what it tasted like.
The one thing I am addicted to is tea and if I don't get my morning cup, I get this dull ache in my forehead, near my right eyebrow, most of the day. I searched desperately for black tea in the aisle where every possible kind of tea was available, except what I wanted.
There was green tea, ginger tea, tea to cut out cholesterol or stress, tea to get you in a swinging mood, but no black tea. I finally took home a package of Oolong tea, but when I poured milk in the cup the concoction turned yellowish-green, instead of the satisfying, chocolate-brown I am used to. Oolong tea is grown at the foot of the Fujian mountain but its taste lacks the rosy, sweet aroma of black tea.
To top things, the other day when I returned to my room, I found Chinese puff pastry and walnut cookies strewn all over the place.
Immediately I went searching for my passport in the suitcase, thinking there was a break-in. But nothing was touched except the food and it was then I remembered seeing a fat raccoon climbing down the fire ladder in the early dawn.
Raccoons have black rings around their eyes, like masks robbers wear to hide their identity. I just couldn't imagine how it could have sneaked through the tiny gap in the window I had left open.
This is one Ramadan I will not forget in a hurry.
Share this article
More from Columnists
More from Opinions
Popular in Opinions
-
Opinions
Speak Your Mind: Cyberbullying
How can we protect our children from being Cyber bullied?
Opinion Editor's choice
-
Charges are step in right direction
Pakistan is finally taking action against people linked to the 2008 Mumbai attacks
-
Lifestyle changes ward off disease
By living well, people can reduce their chances of suffering heart disease
-
Obama still has leverage over Israel
Netanyahu is smiling now, but Israelis have a record of turning against leaders who place the vital US alliance in jeopardy
