Sumeyya is my friend and fellow bloger and journalist.

I love it that she has written a guest post for Consider The Sauce!

Check out her blog here.

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We’re ravenous on the morning of Eid – no surprises there – and I’d like to attribute it to the sizzling meat, the baklava syrup simmering on the stove, the moist borek in the oven and the stuffed vine leaves patiently waiting on a plate to be devoured.

It hasn’t been too long since Eid Al-Fitr came knocking, but Eid Al-Adha (the celebration of sacrifice) is around the corner.

More food, more meat, more sweets and more celebrations await Muslims.

At 6am on Saturday, October 4, a smell (one I long for throughout the year) will linger throughout my room and the house.

A few moans and a few groans later, I will make my way to the kitchen to watch my mum stirring a pot of yayla corbasi while juggling all the other conventions of a Turkish breakfast – tomatoes, eggs, jams, cucumbers, cheese, olives, simit, which will adorn our breakfast table that will host my immediate and extended family.

When Kenny asked me to do a guest post, I thought: “I’m Muslim; Eid is the most important celebration in our calendar; and it includes food.”

However, inadvertently, I went on a cathartic journey and realised Eid is much more than food and celebrating – it is a spiritual journey we take to strengthen ties and assist the poor.

And then it hits me – food is the glue that binds people.

Whether it be a religious, celebratory or personal reason, food is what brings us together – Eid (and the food) brings my extended family (who practically live at my house anyway) onto our breakfast table; it brings friends we haven’t seen in months to share the food we’ve prepared; and it brings millions of people across the world, who otherwise don’t have access to sufficient food, onto a sofra with meat.

Food is much more than sustenance and Eid Al-Adha is much more than a reason to indulge in carnivorous behaviour – it’s a reason we help and a reason poverty-stricken villages can indulge in the bounties of Eid.

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yayla corbasi = yogurt soup

simit = circular bread

sofra = dinner table