Ah, Iftar

My first Iftar of Ramadan last night, at the gorgeous and very conveniently located Qamardeen Hotel (of wine and cheese night fame). They have a divine Italian restaurant in the basement which is where they host their Iftar.

For those outside the Middle East, Iftar is when you get to break your fast during Ramadan, and it takes place at sunset. It's hard to tell exactly when this is (6.32 pm tonight, I'm going for another one!) so the restaurant plays the call to prayer at the appropriate time and that's your signal to start troughing. We did sit for a short while after this, not wanting to be the typical 'Brits at a Buffet' so we weren't the first up, but we did nearly break our necks once we were up, doing a couple of full sweeps of the food!

After a first course of about 20 different salads and a main course of at least 5 different dishes (the best: fish in a cream and raisin sauce: sounds wrong but tasted oh so right) you'd really think that dessert would not be an option. I mean, I don't even have a Sweet tooth! Give me cheese over chocolate any day. So I'm not really sure why I saw fit to scoff not one, not two but three desserts (if you're interested: creme brulee, chocolate brownie and triple layered chocolate mousse).

I had managed to squeeze in 50 lengths of the pool before heading out, but the guilt did weigh heavily on me. Not enough to stop me polishing off three glasses of wine afterwards in a nearby bar. Whoops! And It's another Iftar tonight....well, it really would be rude not to embrace the culture/food of my adopted home!