Ramadan food carts take over Jeddah streets with local flavors

Ramadan food carts take over Jeddah streets with local flavors
People enjoy strolling down in their neighborhood late evening to snack on delectable street food during Ramadan. (Supplied)
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Updated 13 April 2022
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Ramadan food carts take over Jeddah streets with local flavors

Ramadan food carts take over Jeddah streets with local flavors

RIYADH: After iftar, Mwaffag Al-Hubaishi gathers his kids and goes to the neighborhood park, pushing his Ramadan-themed cart — “bastat” in Arabic — to sell some homemade fries and balila (a tangy chickpea-and-pickles dish). 

Bastats can be found on numerous streets throughout the Kingdom during Ramadan, especially in the Hijaz region of the Western Province. They are popular not only because people like to support local businesses, but also because the food invokes fond childhood memories in customers.

“Ramadan vibes make people go down to the streets to enjoy the simplicity of life, to walk, and buy street food,” Al-Hubaishi told Arab News.

“We make good money from selling food, it’s a business and it also ingrains business ethics into our kids. This is why I make sure that, while I do the cooking, my children are the ones who are taking the orders from people,” he continued.  

Shatha Abdulhalim, who sets up her cart — Bastat Elatna — every Ramadan in front of her house in Jeddah, also gets her family to help her out with selling her produce.

“It’s true that you can find frozen samboosa in supermarkets, but people believe that ready-made food is not as good as home-cooked food,” Abdulhalim said. “People prefer to buy from productive families — families with small businesses — because of the homemade flavor that they love and miss. They line up to buy it.”

Abdulhalim added that her takings from her street cart during Ramadan can “reach thousands per day.” So it’s no surprise that, during the holy month, a plethora of local markets appear, filled with small businesses plying their trade.

“It’s a habit in Ramadan that people like to buy local foods like liver and balila. They mostly prefer buying from us because of the authentic taste,” she said. “They want to enjoy the food that is (particular) to Ramadan, like sobia juice, samboosa, and balila.”