Cornbread seldom shows up in articles about Ramadan food, which is odd, given that African American Muslims make up around 20% of the Muslim population in America. The acclaimed historian Sylviane A. Diouf writes in her book, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, that enslaved Muslims in the Brazilian state of Bahia would break their fast with cornmeal, milk, and honey, a tradition that continues today in cornbread as a Ramadan food. Her work seeks to push back on the way that Black life is erased from stories of Islam in America—an erasure sometimes done by Muslim Americans themselves, especially from immigrant backgrounds.
Edward Curtis, who studies Islam in America, says that for some African American Muslims, Ramadan food “might include halal soul food, bean pies, greens, fried fish.” He also points out that religious traditions are dynamic, which is why “many Black Muslim families have incorporated rice dishes they have adopted from other Muslim groups.”
Today, businesses are learning that creating a Ramadan menu is not necessarily about cooking anything different—it is about creating a welcome space for Muslims to gather. Cracked and Battered, a Palestinian-owned chicken and waffle place in San Francisco, serves halal meat and opens early for suhoor.
“That small shift makes a big difference,” owner Waleed Hamdan says. “It tells people they belong. They’re home. They’re safe. They’re vibing.”
The Late-Night Coffee Shop
A good vibe is, of course, what everyone is chasing, and for many Muslims one of the most dramatic changes to American Ramadan culture is the rise of the late-night Yemeni coffee shop. This gave Muslims a third spot to hang out at during Ramadan, aside from the home and the mosque. Ibrahim Alhasbani, the founder of the chain of now 19 Yemeni coffee shops known as Qahwah House, told me that his original location in Dearborn is “like a club after iftar” and that Muslims text him all day to see if they can get in. (Full disclosure: I might have done that once too.)
Curtis says that religious communities in America are always negotiating ideas about home, and that “religion in the United States has always been tied to ethnicity.” Muslims Americans are, by some estimates, this country’s most racially and ethnically diverse faith groups, and that diversity is perhaps most visible on the Ramadan dinner plate.
Muslim American food is American food and ever evolving, so what we crave always changes. Doughnuts are my latest Ramadan crush. Last year my four-year-old son Mirza and I made up a song that goes, “It’s Ramadan. It’s Ramadan. Dada doesn’t eat doughnuts all day long.”
Mirza is growing up in Maine, and I suspect he might associate a lobster roll with Ramadan. Whatever the case, I want him to see that Ramadan is a month when he can and should blur categories and identities. This year he is obsessed with the movie Frozen and told me that he might wear an Elsa dress for Eid prayers.
“What do you think about that, dada?” he asked. “Mashallah,” I said. “That is exactly what Ramadan is about.”
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