During Eid-ul-Fitr, Muslims across the UK will mark the end of Ramadan by celebrating a feast with their friends and family. After long hours of fasting, Eid allows everyone to enjoy experimenting with new recipes, taste new flavours and create traditional favourites sharing inspiration from one another. Asda shoppers share their Eid rituals inspired by the memories of their celebrations.
Every family celebrating Eid can create their Eid Daawat (feast), by shopping for all their ingredients under one roof in Asda. By catering to everyone, Asda serves all ranges from halal meat to different spices, fresh fruit and vegetables, delicious desserts and traditional seasonings from your favourite brands. Asda takes pride in celebrating global foods as well as people from different cultures living in the UK. Whether you wish to create a traditional dish or want to try something new, Asda has all you need to appreciate and be thankful for a festive meal with your near and dear ones.
The halal ranges in Asda are popular during Eid festivities and many families enjoy browsing the selection of different meat that is on offer. Parveen Ashraf, a celebrity chef, and television personality is one mum who enjoys cooking meat for her friends and family. She tells Asda that her favourite part of Eid celebrations is the “smell of sweet cardamom in the morning combined with the smell of garam masala coated over the lamb chops at 8 in the morning.” Parveen’s childhood memory of the sweet and spicy aromas filling up the house are re-created using authentic seasoning as well as the ethnic meats which can be found freshly prepared every morning from Asda.
Many preparing a meal for Eid take inspiration from their childhood memories like Parveen. With the memory comes traditional aspects that are important during a festive occasion like Eid. Asda creates this authenticity with their foods to keep those memories intact and give a personal touch on Eid festivities. Khadija, a mum of two kids originally from Pakistan, believes that “the atmosphere of celebrating Eid in Pakistan is different in the UK. It’s like celebrating Christmas, everyone is together, and it is a big holiday.” She remembers applying henna on the eve before and her father bringing fresh bread home each morning from a famous bakery in Pakistan. This ritual inspires Khadija to make her Eid here with family just as festive and as special as it was in Pakistan. She does this by making traditional food such a seviyan kheer (vermicelli kheer), that are passed around the table after prayers as well as experimenting with new flavours, all with help from Asda. She explains, “I buy more here from my local Asda as there is more range especially with world spices which I couldn’t get in Pakistan.” Sharing new flavours is an important part of Asda’s ethos as it inspires new dishes to be made from people of different backgrounds.
Global flavours are taken from around the world and planted in every local Asda store with their wide range of products. Blessy Syed found shopping at Asda part of her Eid ritual as she had only experienced Eid as a Christian living in Dubai. Now, living with her traditional Muslim in-laws in the UK, Blessy and her family enjoy making sheer khurma together for breakfast every Eid morning. She takes this traditional breakfast which is made in many Muslim household’s during a festive occasion and creates her own pudding with the Madinah Delight Khudri dates from her local Asda store. They remind Blessy of her home in Dubai and create a modern atmosphere around the dinner table. With Asda foods, Blessy can celebrate Eid with new experiences and experimenting with new flavours for herself and her family in the UK.
Another mum who experienced the celebrations of Eid with her in-laws was Philippines born, Sabha, who found all her ingredients from her local Asda supermarket. She explains that “it was something new for me,” and therefore she experienced traditional cuisines through her mother-in-law. When asked about her favourite aspect of Eid, she reminisces her mother-in-law visiting, cooking pulao and dal gosht as a “signature meal.” The dal gosht is a succulent lamb dish coated in a bowl of flavoursome lentil soup and served with fresh naan or rice. Sabha finds that the halal lamb in Asda is not only the right texture but easy to cook and melts off the bone. She also adds “I can rely on Asda each year when celebrating Eid as they make it easier for me rather than going to different stores individually, I can find everything in one place!” After their meal together they continue to enjoy the evening exchanging gifts to one another and sharing stories of their beautiful memories back home.
The variety of global food resonates with Ayesha Baig who loves to cook a selection of foods during Eid. As a modern and busy mum, Ayesha expresses her love for different foods but having to shop for everything last minute. She explains “that is the good thing about Asda. Even when you’re doing last minute shopping, you will always find what you are looking for to make the Eid special for adults and children and I have a big family!” Ayesha’s family would come together enjoying dishes such as biryani, kebabs, chutneys with fruits and trifles. She also expresses her love for gifting traditional sweets saying “if I visit someone’s house, I would take traditional Indian sweets with me. For example, the Royal Gulabjam is beautifully displayed in a festive orange box in Asda so that is always nice to give, and at a good price!”
The shopping experience at Asda is different for everyone but links them together enabling them to share global flavours during their Eid feast. Such diversity of cultures rejoice during this celebration and Asda welcomes all flavours from around the world to bring authenticity and originality into everyone’s home. You can find all the ingredients you need for your Eid Dawaat at Asda so go to your local stores now and see what unique dishes to can put together to share your Eid stories with us. Asda are there to make your Eid special and therefore with the finest ingredients, Asda makes sure old memories come alive again.
