EID IS ABOUT MAKING EVERYONE YOUR OWN
You don’t get to choose your family but you can definitely pick your friends, says food historian Rana Safvi . Eid for her is all about opening her house to strangers and treating them to a scrumptious Eid meal. “Bonds are formed when you open your door, your heart to strangers. That’s the true essence of Eid,” says Safvi. Her Eid platter consists of murgh musallam, nargisi kofta, kheer, seviyan and more. “Musallam means whole. The chicken is marinated in ginger-garlic paste and is stuffed with whole eggs and seasoned with various spices. Often, dry fruits are also stuffed inside the chicken. The word nargisi comes from the flower narcissus. Nargisi kofta is made by the mixture of two meats — raw and cooked, which is wrapped around a boiled egg. This boiled egg is fried and then cut into half,” explains Safvi, as she busies herself in preparing a hearty feast for her neighbours and their families and friends she has never met before.