Day 25: The Magic of Suhoor

Guest blogger: My wonderful Mom!A lot has already been said about the essence of Ramadan, and I am sure we have all gained and learnt a lot from everyone’s  experiences.   While most of the emphasis has been on iftar, things we eat and drink after we open our fasts (I prefer to use the word ‘open’; break fast to me sounds like a regular ‘breakfast’), I am going to write about ‘suhoor’, what we eat before we start our fast.For me growing up in my parent’s house, suhoor held a special charm. After the regular suhoor meal consisting of freshly made hot parathas, with eggs, keema, or mutton curry, we would top it off with a yummy desert treat, which was my favorite. It is called  "khajla phenni”, which we bought at the supermarket, soaked in milk with some sugar the night before, and ate at suhoor.  I recall now that khajla was actually nothing more than fried flaky sweetened dough (what did we know in those days.)  My children and grandchildren today have replaced this with chocolate chip waffles and strawberry pancakes.Waking up from a sound sleep at 3 am to eat suhoor was really hard. However seeing the encouraging smile on my father’s face and a pat on the back from him made it all worthwhile. There were seven of us brothers and sisters, and we had fun.  Having had our meal, said our morning prayers, we slipped back into bed, with a good feeling of accomplishment.Day 25, Tradition 25: The Magic of Suhoor