Inside UAE’s biggest iftar kitchen
01:43AM Thu 3 Jul, 2014
Dubai: It’s about 11am on a scorching Ramadan morning and a group of eight chefs along with a few dozen helpers are racing against time to garnish 10 giant pots full of simmering mutton porridge — or kanji as they call it at a kitchen in Sonapur.
The humble broth coddled with rice, lentil, fennel, coriander and other herbs will feed nearly 3,000 men — mostly blue collar workers — at an iftar in Ali Rashid Lootah mosque near Naif Gold Souq in Deira.
And this happens everyday during Ramadan in what is arguably the UAE’s biggest iftar, according to Liyakath Ali, general secretary of the Indian Muslim Association-UAE, registered as the IMAN Cultural Centre which has been organising this special iftar service for 35 years.
Record meal
Ali who has been at the helm of this community service since the start told XPRESS: “We are serving what I could safely say is the biggest iftar in the UAE.”
Inside the kitchen near the RTA bus depot in Sonapur, the chefs and another 50-odd helpers get together to cook, pack, load and offload the food — all in a day’s work, starting at 5am.
“That’s been pretty much my schedule for the last 10 years during Ramadan. I hardly sleep, but then it is all for a great cause,” said Anwar Badshah, 39, who is a cook in the same labour camp kitchen.
During Ramadan, Badshah happily does a double-shift, preparing kanji that uses almost 150kg of basmati rice and 60kg of Indian mutton daily.
“We don’t do it for money, but we are suitably rewarded. The greatest satisfaction of course is to see thousands ending the fast with what you cook,” adds Badshah, looking visibly tired on his chair, having woken up at 4am after just a few hours sleep.
His Ramadan shift is about to end at around 3pm, but work continues for other volunteers who have joined a little later. At about 3.30pm they rustle up plastic bags with amazing alacrity, packing the food in boxes.
Each food pack contains samosas, dates, water, fruit, laban and juices besides the porridge.
Meanwhile, dates in 500 cartons, each weighing 10kg, are already stacked at the mosque also known as the Kuwaiti masjid.
The porridge, however, remains the main attraction for over 100,000 faithfuls who throng this mosque during the month for iftar.
Gulf News
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