Ramadan Kareem!

It's Ramadan, the announcement was made last night.  Time for a month of fasting from first light (~4am) until sunset at around 6pm. 

Spent the last week decaffinating, slowing weaning myself off of coffee, otherwise I would get a massive headache the first day.  It was also weird putting food and water on my nightstand so that I could eat something quickly at 3:30am before going back to sleep.

It will be nice to enjoy Ramadan festivities again, due to Covid I was home for the last two Ramadans, either because of lockdown or because I was keeping myself safe by limiting how much I went out. But things have settled down here, cases are around 100-ish a day, and so it'll be nice to get out an enjoy the month. Already planning to stop by a friend's majlis at 9pm, that's when the Ramadan prayers (Tarawih) end and things start happening in the country. From around 9pm until 2am or so everyone is out and about, visiting friends, shopping, doing errands, whatever.

Here's hoping we all have a happy, mellow Ramadan.

Ramadan 2020 - Traditional Iftar Meal

Day 42 of isolation in the apartment. But yesterday I was chatting with a friend on the phone and invited me to stop by his family's majlis today to pick up some food for iftar so that have some traditional Qatari iftar food. Every Ramadan my friend's father makes extra food for iftar that he gives away to people. Since quickly going to a majlis didn't seem too risky to me I decided to head out to pick up the food. It would be a pleasant change from the lockdown food I have been eating for the last seven weeks, especially meat. The only animal protein that I've been eating is the occasional can of tuna.

When I arrived at the majlis there were dozens of containers waiting for people to pick them up. When my friend said his father makes extra food for people he wasn't kidding -- there was probably enough food to feed over 100 people. And the family does this every day of Ramadan. After chatting a bit with my friend and his father (from a safe distance) I picked up my food, thanked them kindly for the meal, and headed home for iftar.

Here is the food. It was indeed a lot of traditional food. From left to right is some harees, desserts, curried chicken on rice, some samosas (that's not its name in Arabic but I can't remember what it is) and some thareed. You don't know what harees and thareed are? That's okay, I have a blog post from 2013 that explains it.

It was nice to have something different for dinner, the thareed especially was quite nice. It was a lot of food though, it will last me at least four meals.


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Today is also the Qatari holiday of Garangao, which is in the middle of Ramadan (more information here). Sadly with the restrictions in place kids will not really be able to celebrate it. I think some places are offering 'virtual garangao' but I'm not really sure how that would work.


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Coronavirus update: Things are unfortunately holding steady. Over 900 cases today, but no deaths thankfully. Over a hundred are recovering every day but there's over 16,000 in quarantine now. I'm not sure when the curve will peak.

Stay safe everyone.

Ramadan 2019 - the Car Parade

And it was time to see another Qatar Ramadan tradition. Every day around 5:00pm tons of people cruise up and down the Corniche, biding time until iftar. It's a chance for Qataris to show off their classic or expensive cars, but others don't drive anything too out of the ordinary and just join the crowd. Meanwhile other people stand on the side to take photos. It happens every afternoon during Ramadan.

As an aside this was the only time that day that I saw children hanging out of sunroofs or windows. In years past it was a lot more frequent but the police started cracking down on it, and that's a good thing. So this year I only saw this one time.

Otherwise enjoy some of the vehicles from that day's "parade":

Ramadan 2019 - The Ramadan Cannon

Yesterday I made my annual trip out to see the Ramadan Cannon. Every Ramadan the Government sets up a cannon next to the State Mosque, which is fired when the sun sets to tell everyone that the fasting period has ended.

So off to the mosque.

It's in a beautiful location, on a small hill with one of the nicest views of West Bay.

As usual plenty of families were there. The military guys overseeing the cannon let kids climb on it.

By the way if you ever want to know where to get those military uniforms for children I suggest Souq Al Ali, a number of shops there carry them.

So as the time approaches the soldiers move the spectators to a safe distance.

... ready . . .

FIRE!

And then everyone heads back to their vechicles to drink something, have some dates and snacks, then go to iftar.

I had packed some food and water, but then I forgot it (smh) so I raced home to have iftar.

If you live in Doha you still have a chance to see it. The cannon is fired every day of Ramadan at around 6:15-6:20 (depending on when the sun sets).

Ramadan 2019 - Eating

So we're half-way through Ramadan. The Qatari holiday of Garangao was yesterday. I was at a friend's house that evening but he is in a new neighbourhood under construction so only one set of kids showed up. My friend was not expecting anyone at all so he didn't have anything prepared, he wound up giving them some oreos (lol).

I've been really good about not going to tons of Ramadan buffets at hotels and restaurants. I've only been to one so far and while I won't say I was just sticking to salads I did cut back a lot more than I would normally do. The buffets are lavish and have so many options that it's difficult to not overeat.

That is not to say I'm losing a ton of weight. While my iftar has been pretty good most of my evenings are spent at friends' majlises, and temptation is always around. Every majlis has stuff like this on hand:

Chips, chocolates, cookies, biscuits, you name it. And inevitably people bring desserts like cakes and donuts.

Sometimes healthy options are available though.

Then it's sohour time. Even on a weekday we will be eating around 1am. A lot of time it's delivery fast food (burgers, pizza) or Arabic takeaways. Once it was a more traditional platter of chicken on rice (not always as healthy as it might sound, sometimes a lot of oil is used when cooking), and sometimes we get subs, which are a bit healthier if they don't use mayo or high-cal sauces. I try to be good but at the same time you're starving, and your next decent meal will be in 17 hours, so you tuck in.

Hopefully I've maintained my weight or lost a little bit of weight so far.

Ramadan at Katara

Last night I met friends at a restaurant at Katara. It had been a while since I had been there so I went early to wander around and see what had changed. A lot it turns out.

Katara had some beautiful decorations up across the roads for Ramadan.

And a new section had opened, sort of a small, upscale mall with buildings that to me look Italian.

Not all of it had opened yet, there were a few cafes and restaurants and a number of clothing shops, the heart of it being the French Department store Galeries Lafayette. I didn't have a chance to go in and wander around but I'm assuming that it's high-end luxury brands inside. A number of Qataris were there shopping and enjoying the cafes.

What was most surprising, and it took me a minute to notice, was that the temperature was surprisingly cool outside. This new section had air conditioning bulit into the walkways, so even though I was outdoors it was still cool. When I left the area to go to the rest of Katara the temperature increased sharply.

So with the new section there are a lot of restaurants and cafes at Katara now. Luckily there is a Metro station at Katara (opening soon), which will make it a lot easier for people to get there.

Also new, at the far end of Katara, on Shakespeare Street, the parking lot at the end now had a ton of small kiosks selling various food, similar to what is happening at Qatar Sports Club and Lekhwiya Club. So now there are even more food choices.

I left there and headed to the restaurant to meet my friends, walking along the beach to take in the view. Katara has developed into a really nice place. While some of it is underutilized (like the amphitheater) there is more to do there now and it has some of the best views in the city. Hopefully the Metro station will open soon and allow it to be busier.

Ramadan 2019, Day 1 - Settling In

Ramadan started off with an alarm ringing at 3:10am, so that I could get up and have my sohour meal before first light appeared to inform the world that it was time to fast. Being roused from a deep sleep was annoying but I got up and ate the meal on the nightstand. It took me a while to get back to sleep though.

What I forgot about was how bad the traffic would be in the morning. Almost everywhere is on reduced hours and they all start at the same time (at least it appeared to be that way) so everyone is driving to work together. Usually there are staggered hours, most Ministries and Government offices start at 7 or 7:30, other offices at 8 or 9, but now the Ministries are on 9 to 2 as is everyone else. Traffic was worse than usual, yet when I looked out the office windows an hour-and-a-half later the streets had only light traffic. Repeat when work finishes. I came in a half-hour early so that I could leave a half-hour early and beat the rush. It didn't help. Still took double the usual time to get home. Combine that with the fact that everyone is hungry, thirsty, and possibly craving a smoke, and it makes for a bit of tension on the roads. You need to be extra careful as people are more impatient and more likely to quickly switch lanes and speed around.

Got home, and despite having a decent night's sleep I still felt lethargic and wound up napping for an hour. Wasn't feeling great after waking up, a little headachey, which I'm guessing is residual caffeine withdrawal.

Got my iftar prepared:

Vegetable soup with pasta, apple, dates, a hard-boiled egg, slice of wheat bread and two rice cakes, and lots of water of course. No nuts this time, I'm going to try to replace high-calorie nuts with eggs or tuna as the protein. As for dates Muslims will eat an odd number of them when breaking the fast -- it's a hadith that the Prophet would eat an odd number.

It's a bigger meal than most Muslims will eat, they have to go to prayer so they will usually eat a lighter meal, go to prayer, then eat a bigger meal when they return.

It's almost time, just waiting for the call from the mosques to indicate when you can break the fast. If there isn't much noise I can also hear the Ramadan Cannon. I'm sure I'll feel fine after eating.

Ramadan 2019 is here!

The month of Ramadan has officially started. I happened to be playing padel tennis with some friends as the sun was setting when suddenly we heard a series of thundering booms. It was the Ramadan Cannon at the State Mosque, which happened to be nearby. The Cannon was fired four or five times to tell everyone that Ramadan has arrived and the Holy Month has begun.

So time to get meals prepared. The first prayer of the day is at 3:32am so you have to eat the final meal a bit before that, then you fast for the rest of the day, until just after 6pm. No food, not even water. What I always do is keep a meal on my nightstand (dry cereal, nuts, fruit, anything easy to grab and eat in the dark) along with two big glasses of water and a glass of laban. I will be setting an alarm for 3:10am, eat the meal, then go back to bed. Muslims won't be going to sleep, they've got to go pray, hopefully getting a bit more sleep after they return from prayers before heading off to work.

Work hours are reduced because Muslims are fasting. My office has 5-hour work days during Ramadan, but naturally no lunch break. Not that a lunch break would matter much, all the restaurants are closed during the day and eating or drinking in public during the day is a major faux pas. It can be serious, if police are around they'll ask you to stop.

While fasting you can't smoke either so smokers can really suffer, and like food & drink you can't smoke in public during the day. You would think more people would take this opportunity to quit smoking but it seems like smokers just bear with it.


Here's hoping for a great Holy Month. Ramadan Kareem everyone!

Ramadan is Fast Approaching

Another year, and another Ramadan is upon us. My understanding is that the Ministry will be looking for the Moon tonight (which will signify the beginning of the new month in the Islamic calendar). If they spot it then Ramadan begins and fasting starts tomorrow. Otherwise they will look for it the following night and fasting will start on Monday.

As usual I will be fasting like most people here. The first couple of days will be a challenge but after that you get into a groove and it's not so difficult to manage. I've already been working on decaffinating and now I barely drink any caffeinated beverages. Going cold-turkey on caffeine would be the worst and I'm not sure how many people do it. Some of my friends have said, "You get headaches for a couple of days then it's fine", ummm, that's not fine, going through caffeine withdrawal is not my idea of a good time when you're not allowed to eat or drink anything during the day.

Just need to do a bit of shopping to stock up on supplies. If I can keep the Iftar's small, and get out of the apartment so that I'm not tempted to snack, I might actually lose a bit of weight this month. We'll see.

Ramadan 2018 - Meals

One of the nice things about Ramadan is that you get a lot of invites to iftars or sohours. Whether from friends or corporate events there's plenty of opportunity to eat out. One would think since Ramadan is about fasting people would generally lose weight but it's usually the reverse, once the sun sets the eating begins! I think I've been doing pretty good this year, trying not to overdo it at buffets and when I'm at home my meals are definitely low-cal (soups, vegetables, tuna, low-cal protein bars).

Here was what I was up to this month:

W Hotel iftar buffet. A popular venue and has a reputation for some of the best sushi in town. I was here twice on different invitations, which shows how popular it is with corporate groups as well.

Mondrian sohour tent. Actually their main ballroom decorated in an Orientalist tent style. Beautiful room, was the nicest decorations of any of the hotels that I ate at. They also had an Austrian dessert section with strudels! Not something that I was expecting for sohour but they were delicious.

St. Regis iftar. Popular with my Qatari friends, we've gone every year for the last three years. This time there was something like 20 of us for the buffet.

Kempinski (Pearl) iftar. I've only been to this hotel once before but they put out a nice spread. We arrived early which is why it looks empty.

Iftar/sohour at friends' homes. More often sohour than iftar (you need to go pray after iftar so if you have friends over the meal will not be hours long). Traditional platters of meat or seafood on rice. You all sit on the floor and eat using your right hand.

Like I said, it's not easy to resist digging in when you go have these lavish meals. I'm not going to rate the hotels, they all had nice food. I will say that some of them (not naming names) had the tables too close together in order to pack in as many people as they could, which got annoying at times. Every place I went to was packed so if the tables were too close it was a challenge getting around and having people constantly passing by your chair.

Alas, Ramadan is almost over and so no more big buffets.