A base kitchen of Keita Catering in Dubai Investment Park. It’s an action-packed production line as vegetable curry is being prepared in gigantic utensils.
During Ramadan, public kitchens have their work cut out as they take bulk orders, to be delivered at mosques and labour accommodations for iftar.
Mosques around the country serve free iftar to thousands of people, besides dozens of mega tents where thousands more eat after a day of fasting. By noon, tantalising aromas waft through the air as food is packed in individual boxes.
An iftar box typically contains biryani with chicken or lamb, vegetable saloona, salad, an apple, dates and fruit juice.
Gulf News Senior Photographer Pankaj Sharma and Staff Photographers Ahmed Kutty and Ahmed Ramzan take us on a tour of the many public kitchens across Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah
Biryani being prepared in Bratt pans, each with a capacity to cook 150Kg of rice at a time. The tantalising aroma of food wafting through the air is unmissable.
Rice being boiled for biryani in a fully automatic rice boiler. 5,000kg of rice is cooked everyday for Iftar meals at the Keita Catering kitchen in Dubai Investment Park.
Iftar meals are served to people near Hamdan Street in Abu Dhabi every day.
Biryani being packed into individual boxes for distribution. By 4.30pm every day, more than 20,000 iftar meals are packed and ready to be transported across Dubai.
Rush hour at a kitchen in Dubai.
Salad being packed into containers at a kitchen in Dubai.
Staff at Al Qaiem Public Kitchen in Sharjah pack Iftar meals.
Food packets being wheeled out of a kitchen.
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