{"id":21826,"date":"2024-04-10T03:04:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T07:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multi.nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/?p=21826"},"modified":"2025-02-13T09:40:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T14:40:34","slug":"how-these-bk-chefs-cooked-while-fasting-for-ramadan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/how-these-bk-chefs-cooked-while-fasting-for-ramadan\/","title":{"rendered":"How These BK Chefs Cooked While Fasting For Ramadan"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Christopher Edwards<\/a><\/p>\n

With the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which starts on April 10 this year, Muslims are preparing to end one month of fasting for Ramadan, a time for prayer and deep reflection as part of the Islamic Calendar.<\/p>\n

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For practicing Muslims working in restaurants who are constantly exposed to food and drink, fasting from sunrise to sunset can be especially challenging. As several workers at Huda, a Levantine\u00a0bistro in Williamsburg, fasted for the month of Ramadan, they expressed the struggle\u00a0to stay on track as they stayed\u00a0committed\u00a0to their faith.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s very tough. I mean, I tried to do it last year, But I was only able to do 15 days,\u201d said Ismael Alcheikh, a bartender at Huda. \u201cYou don’t drink water, you’re not eating, you’re kind of like, grumpy, but you still want to make people happy. Your job is to make people\u2019s experience enjoyable.\u00a0You have to kind of forget about everything you\u2019re going through and help people enjoy their time.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain not only from eating food and drinking during daylight, but also from tobacco, sexual relations\u00a0and any behavior deemed sinful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not easy, but you have to do it,\u201d said Lacine Camara, a line cook at Huda. \u201cIf you\u2019re Muslim, you don\u2019t play around with this [fasting]. It\u2019s only one month out of a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

While fasting, Camara said he does not taste the food he’s\u00a0cooking and will ask\u00a0others in the kitchen do it for him.<\/p>\n

Omneyah Hassan, a sous chef, said she makes a mental separation between what she prepares and what she actually eats.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us [chefs] don’t really eat until late night anyway,\u201d said Hassan. \u201cWith our schedule, we sleep pretty late compared to people with like nine-to-five schedules so it kind of balances out with the Ramadan fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huda, which opened five\u00a0months ago, is owned by\u00a0Gehad Hadidi, who is known for his French bistro La Bonne Soupe\u00a0in Manhattan. Hadidi, who lives in Brooklyn, said he wanted to create a restaurant which was reflective of his Lebanese and Syrian heritage.<\/p>\n

“The main concept was to express the wider culinary\u00a0repertoire\u00a0of our region” said Hadidi. The cuisine, described as “New Levantine” takes staples from Mediterranean dishes and offers fresh takes on them.<\/p>\n

The workers said they’ll enjoy Eid by breaking the fast with their family and loved ones through a shared meal at home. Some find it customary to eat something sweet before prayers, while others visit friends and exchange gifts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Christopher Edwards With the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which starts on April 10 this year, Muslims are preparing to end one month of fasting for Ramadan, a time for prayer and deep reflection as part of the Islamic Calendar. For practicing Muslims working in restaurants who are constantly exposed to food and drink, fasting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5904,"featured_media":21833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,513],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-10-lists","category-williamsburg-neighborhoods-2"],"yoast_head":"\nHow These BK Chefs Cooked While Fasting For Ramadan - Brooklyn News and Events<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nycnewsnetwork.com\/brooklynbuzz\/how-these-bk-chefs-cooked-while-fasting-for-ramadan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How These BK Chefs Cooked While Fasting For Ramadan\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By: Christopher Edwards With the celebration of Eid al-Fitr, which starts on April 10 this year, Muslims are preparing to end one month of fasting for Ramadan, a time for prayer and deep reflection as part of the Islamic Calendar. 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