Table Tales: Iftar From Afar (10.05.2020)

Author of Table Tales: The Global Nomad Cuisine of Abu Dhabi, Hanan Sayed Worrell loves to bring people together to tell their stories over food, and the lockdown hasn’t stopped her from doing just that.

During the pandemic she launched “The Distant Social Dinner Society” where guests get together for a dinner party over zoom, with the concept evolving in Ramadan to become Iftar from Afar. She created this in collaboration with NYU Abu Dhabi Professor Jonathan Shannon, and they actually modeled the idea on Boccaccio’s Decameron, in which ten Florentines fled to the hills to escape the ravages of the plague in 1348, each of them telling stories over the course of their 10 day “sheltering in place,” and in the same way, the Table Tales Distant Social Dinner Society consists of ten diners sharing a virtual meal, telling stories of and about food and community.

Sally was guest at this week’s Iftar from Afar, along with a diverse group of people who were invited to break bread virtually, including Asma Sedeeq Al Mutawa, the founder of the Multaqa Cultural Salon, CNN’s John Defterios, and two professors from the American University of Sharjah who are originally from China, Professors Shaojin Chai and Yuting Wang, who is the author of Between Islam and the American Dream: An Immigrant Muslim Community in Post-9/11 America. With cuisine from all over the world including Indonesia, Yemen, Iraq, Palestine, Morocco, Sudan and more, find out what each guest shared at the virtual Iftar table!

Listen to #Pulse95Radio in the UAE by tuning in on your radio (95.00 FM) or online on our website: www.pulse95radio.com

************************

Follow us on Social.

www.facebook.com/pulse95radio

www.twitter.com/pulse95radio

www.instagram.com/pulse95radio