Madame Blossom's Book of Poems

Monday, August 24, 2009

How to avoid food wastage during Ramadhan?

Come Ramadhan we'll always face food excess. We always have much much more food than we need for iftar/sahur. Sometimes it's not really anyone's fault. It's just poor cultural habit perhaps.

People want to share their food with others, the neighbours etc. This normally comes as a surprise. And that's the thing that causes food excess. Those people are not aware that there'll be more food coming, so they've already prepared enough (or a little more than enough) food for everyone.. then comes more surprise food.

I wonder if it's possible to start the habit of informing the other party way before hand, that they would like to give some food and what food. This will allow the other party to gauge, how much food they should prepare, in expectation of the extra food that's coming.

In Dubai, I hear, people invite their neighbours to have iftar over at their place, early in the morning! I think that is good! I mean after all, if we're going to feed a fasting person.. feed betul2 sekali eh.. rather than give a bit of what they cook.

And the thing is, I find that during fasting, we truly need much less food than non fasting days(that should be obvious :p) I mean in terms of consumption PER meal. The amount of food required to satisfy you, is lesser when you're fasting, then when you're not. That's why when people eat their normal full meal during iftar, they always feel bloated. (disclaimer : this is not a scientific finding, this is my own observation).

In any case, I truly hope, I will be able to improve on not wasting food at home during Ramadhan. InsyaAllah.

2 comments:

Mak Su said...

betul dan informing is a very good idea, tapi takut rakyat di sebelah sini tak boleh terima budaya sedemikian jer.

madame blossom said...

Heh. Betul.. Tu yang tricky tu.. I hv 3 close muslim neighbours. I told them of this idea. Alhamdulillah semua terima (maybe diorang pun tahu I'm always with grange ideas) malangnya only 1 of them 'controls' the kitchen. The other 2 mak diorang yg raja. So they don't hv much say, and yday, I still end up with leftovers. Sayang betul.. Tapi tak termakaaaan da kenyang. :(
I'm still trying la.. :p