A Date Omelette for Ramadan

When I was a child, Ramadan was simple. It was about date omelettes.

I grew up in Iran in the late 1970s, just before the Iranian revolution. During Ramadan, we would get up around 4 or 4:30 to have a suhur, also called sahari, meaning a daybreak meal. After that, no food and no water until sunset. For the grown-ups, it meant no smoking, and as they love to joke, no sex until sunset. At that time, we would break our fast with a meal called iftar.

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But in the mornings, my mom would wake me and my brother at 4. Getting out of bed was usually a Titanic struggle, but not on Ramadan mornings. We got to have a special treat on those days: date omelettes.

My mom is a wonderful Iranian mom, who always looks "presentable." Ramadan mornings were the only times that we would get to see her before she had showered and as we say in Persian, "looking as beautiful as a rose." There was something so fragile and sleepy, so warm and comforting about her on those early Ramadan mornings.

Date omelettes must have at least 8,000 calories. She would take four or five fresh dates, cook them in some butter, and then mix with scrambled eggs. We washed it down with a tall glass of chocolate milk, and another glass of water. Happiness on a table, served up at 4:30 a.m. We lived for that meal. We were not allowed to have date omelettes at any other time of the year, no matter how much we begged.

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