Mughal delicacies served during Ramadan

The lasting legacy of the Mughal Empire remains apparent in India, mainly in the architecture found in the older corners of the capital city Delhi, or at the Taj Mahal. But it is also present in the food, especially in the elaborate meals that many Indian Muslims settle down to when finishing a day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadan. The month is full of traditions, the more obvious being long hours spent in prayer and the fasting that begins with a simple dawn meal. After sunset, however, the convention is also to feast on select treats amid large gatherings.

People also fill the streets of Delhi, where the grand Jama masjid, Red Fort, and smaller homes and monuments hidden away in alleyways, serve as reminders of Mughal influence. Some of the restaurants, which are more than a century-old, pride themselves on serving dishes from the Mughal royal menus.

Meat dishes make the meal for a lot of Muslims, despite sharply rising prices, and the kebabs especially take influence from the times of Mughal rule. "Shami kabab is a Syrian dish. Syria is referred to as Sham by Muslims, thus they gave it the name Shami kabab," said historian Arif Aziz, who explained that it arrived with the Syrian cooks brought over by the Mughal elite. The Mughals also introduced the popular drink Rooh Afza, a rose-flavored liquid similar to beverages still drunk in the Middle East. "It seems the majority of the dishes Muslims [in India] eat today came to India from the Mughals," Aziz added. For some, breaking fast with deep-fried snacks like onion and potato fritters, known as pakoras, or minced-meat or vegetable-filled pastries called samosas, is unthinkable.The sweets are just as rich, and include rice puddings known as firni, vermicelli cooked in milk and sugar and deep-fried sugary batter known as jalebi.