We are once again taking part in the Multicultural Kid’s Blog fifth annual Ramadan & Eid for Kids blog hop, where bloggers come together to share ideas for teaching kids about and honoring Ramadan & Eid.

Last year, we created a word search of Ramadan foods and this year we thought we would do the same, but specifically food that is eaten in India, during the holy month.

I was recently sent a beautifully illustrated book about two kids, Maya and Neel, that go on an India adventure to learn about how people there observe fasting and the types of food they eat.

Let’s Celebrate Ramadan & Eid: Muslim Festival of Fasting and Sweets, written and illustrated by Ajanta Chakraborty and Vivek Kumar, was published by Culture Groove. It is part of an 11 book series, a few of which also teach about the holiday of Holi, visiting Mumbai and what you might see at an Indian wedding.

When I was sharing it with my daughter, she asked me what Sheer Khurma, a drink talked about twice in the book, tasted like. She was shocked to learn that I had never had it before. She assumed that all Muslims eat the same food during Ramadan.

We started researching other Indian foods that are only eaten in that region and came up with these eight:

Chapatis is an unleavened flatbread.

Chorba is a kind of soup or stew.

Dahi Vadey are fried chickpea-based fritters soaked in a savory yogurt base.

Falooda is a cold dessert made from mixing rose syrup, vermicelli, sweet basil seeds with milk, often served with ice cream.

Haleem is a type of stew that includes wheat or barley, and sometimes meat and/or lentils.

Rooh Afza is a syrup generally served mixed with cold milk and ice; the closest Western equivalent is strawberry milk.

Sharbat is a drink prepared from fruits or flower petals, that is sweet and usually served chilled.

Sheer Khurma is a festival vermicelli pudding made with dried dates.

I put them in a word search for her to find and we hope to visit our local Indian store soon to try some together. Download it here:

Please check out the book Let’s Celebrate Ramadan & Eid: Muslim Festival of Fasting and Sweets to learn about other new adventures that Maya and Neel discover together in India.

Be sure to stop by our resource page to see more book reviews that included educational printouts.