It all starts with a conversation. Eduardo Placer and I were introduced through our mutual friend Daniel Pincus, and as soon as we started talking, the ideas started flowing. What is more unusual, perhaps, is what came next: we actually made it happen! This is how #onebreakfast came about: an interfaith culinary experience on the occasion of the coinciding of two fasts, Muslim Ramadan and Jewish Tzom Tammuz. Before long we brought in our friend Mohammed Alsamawi, who helped us learn what an Iftar - the Ramadan break-fast meal - is like.
For one, it traditionally seems to involve a lot of hearty meat dishes. I knew that for the menu I wanted to go classic Middle Eastern - read: homemade pita, smoky babaghanush, garlicky hummus, and clearly some tangy muhamarra, a paste of grilled red pepper and walnuts with vinegar and spices. Along with that goes bourekas, stuffed savory pastries filled with spinach and potatoes.
So I compiled some meat masterpieces that I felt fit the bill. I wanted representation from the myriad and complex traditions of all the voices we would have at our table. I went with sofrito, a Jewish comfort food of chicken simmered with spices and fried potatoes until it's falling-off-the-bone tender. Next I added maqluba, a Palestinian casserole of lamb, rice, cauliflower, and eggplant which is flipped upside-down before serving. For good measure, I threw in a Persian pot of beef with stewed fruit and exotic spices.
Of course, to honor Eduardo's Cuban roots, I also prepared moros y cristianos, rice and black beans. And the feast would not be complete without sweets - I made baklava, and attayif, sweet yeast pancakes doused in rosewater syrup, which I found featured in an Israeli cookbook's Ramadan section.
One minor detail which I forgot to mention: I had to prepare all of this while fasting! (You will recall that the whole point of this exercise was to mark the breaking of a fast... which means there must be one to begin with...) For me this was not as hard as it may seem, as to me cooking is in many ways a creative art in and of itself, in isolation from its connection to eating. Moreover, I always value the close connection between religion and food. What we eat, when, how - and with whom - can be a rich form of expression of our spiritual state, our heritage, and our identity.
I will declare that the #onefast recipe was a success! Everyone gathered, ate, and communed. At the end of the evening I asked one guest whether this was what a traditional Iftar is like. "Forget Iftar," was the reply, "This is much better!"
For one, it traditionally seems to involve a lot of hearty meat dishes. I knew that for the menu I wanted to go classic Middle Eastern - read: homemade pita, smoky babaghanush, garlicky hummus, and clearly some tangy muhamarra, a paste of grilled red pepper and walnuts with vinegar and spices. Along with that goes bourekas, stuffed savory pastries filled with spinach and potatoes.
So I compiled some meat masterpieces that I felt fit the bill. I wanted representation from the myriad and complex traditions of all the voices we would have at our table. I went with sofrito, a Jewish comfort food of chicken simmered with spices and fried potatoes until it's falling-off-the-bone tender. Next I added maqluba, a Palestinian casserole of lamb, rice, cauliflower, and eggplant which is flipped upside-down before serving. For good measure, I threw in a Persian pot of beef with stewed fruit and exotic spices.
Of course, to honor Eduardo's Cuban roots, I also prepared moros y cristianos, rice and black beans. And the feast would not be complete without sweets - I made baklava, and attayif, sweet yeast pancakes doused in rosewater syrup, which I found featured in an Israeli cookbook's Ramadan section.
One minor detail which I forgot to mention: I had to prepare all of this while fasting! (You will recall that the whole point of this exercise was to mark the breaking of a fast... which means there must be one to begin with...) For me this was not as hard as it may seem, as to me cooking is in many ways a creative art in and of itself, in isolation from its connection to eating. Moreover, I always value the close connection between religion and food. What we eat, when, how - and with whom - can be a rich form of expression of our spiritual state, our heritage, and our identity.
I will declare that the #onefast recipe was a success! Everyone gathered, ate, and communed. At the end of the evening I asked one guest whether this was what a traditional Iftar is like. "Forget Iftar," was the reply, "This is much better!"