Late-night kababs and paneer: Extra halal eating places lengthen hours throughout Ramadan

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EDMONTON — Imran Kayesh remembers the odor of evenly marinated rooster and fish scorching on a grill inside a packed restaurant in Bangladesh simply earlier than dawn throughout Ramadan.

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“It’s like 4 or 5 a.m., so early you received’t notice that you will eating places at an odd time,” says the meals blogger, who immigrated to Canada from the South Asian nation in 2015.

“Exterior on the street, you see vehicles packed, climate is humid, folks strolling round.”

There was rice and yogurt to go along with the meat, together with a big glass of water, which sustained him till nightfall.

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As Ramadan begins Friday, Kayesh says the vibe received’t be precisely the identical in Canada. However he’s excited that extra eating places throughout the nation are set to remain open longer or open earlier every day all through the following month.

He’s already set his sights on Center Japanese, Pakistani and Bangladeshi eating places and a espresso store in Edmonton that plan to serve halal meals till midnight, by to dawn or 24-7.

The weird hours of operation are a practice in nations with giant Muslim populations throughout Ramadan, a holy month within the Islamic lunar calendar when Muslims don’t eat meals or drink water from dawn to sundown.

Such nations additionally enable Muslims to work shorter days so the fasts are simpler to get by.

In Canada, with its quantity of daylight in March, many Muslims don’t eat or drink something for 12 hours.

Calgary-based meals influencer Zareen Tasnim says she’s excited to interrupt every quick by consuming from buffets that many eating places plan so as to add to their menus late into the evening and solely throughout Ramadan. There will probably be mouth-watering trays of kebabs, rooster tikka, paneer, naans, biryani, butter rooster and different stews.

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Tasnim says there’s additionally a well-liked Korean fried rooster joint in Calgary that’s scheduled to remain open later, and a few companies have additionally created house for Muslims to wish.

“It’s so thrilling when totally different cultures additionally lengthen their hours, have fun your tradition with you,” she says. “We positively didn’t have that just a few years in the past.”

When Tasnim beforehand needed takeout throughout Ramadan, she says she must choose up her order hours earlier than she may break her quick.

“By the point it was time to eat, it was chilly or not as recent,” she says.

Wayne Smith, director of the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Analysis at Toronto Metropolitan College, says the pattern of extending restaurant hours throughout Ramadan started after the COVID-19 pandemic as Canada welcomed extra immigrants.

“You’re beginning to discover halal meals in much more locations in Canada than you’d have discovered 10 years in the past and positively greater than 20 years in the past,” he says.

“Immigrants are bringing that tradition to Canada.”

Smith says Canadians who don’t mark Ramadan, together with those that work graveyard shifts or have distant jobs with worldwide corporations, additionally recognize having the ability to get recent, savoury South Asian and Center Japanese meals and desserts at odd hours.

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“Given our society as we speak, it truly simply is smart. We work in a way more 24-7 setting.”

Most municipal bylaws in Canada don’t have restrictions on the prolonged hours, he provides.

“The one time that you simply actually get numerous restrictions is in case you had been serving alcohol,” he says. Most halal-serving eating places don’t supply alcohol.

The one problem could be discovering employees.

“However that is an trade that’s nicely used to working towards visitor wants and dealing odd instances, so that they make it occur,” says Smith.

Kayesh says prolonged hours can also be excellent news for second- and third-generation Muslims born in Canada who can expertise their tradition of their neighbourhoods like members of the family did a long time earlier than.

Ramadan is like Christmas for Muslims, says Tasnim.

Together with fasting, the neighborhood makes time to volunteer for charities, collect in giant teams, pray shoulder to shoulder at mosques, replicate, then eat some extra.

“My favorite half is spending time with household and associates who I don’t get to see numerous all year long,” she says.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed on Feb. 28, 2025.

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