LONDON: Ful, a dish made of cooked fava beans, is proving to be the dish of choice for fasting Muslims during Ramadan in the Saudi Arabian city of Madinah. The dish, which is an everyday food across the Arab World, is one of the most popular dishes served in Madinah at Iftar, the evening meal with which Muslims end their daily Ramadan fast at sunset, and suhoor, the pre-dawn meal. Ful’s popularity stems from its excellent nutritional value, delicious taste, attractive aroma, and the fact that it is considered to be a very filling food rich in protein. Iftar in Madinah is not complete without ful and the city’s ful vendors are extremely busy just before sunset with people wanting to buy the freshly prepared dish. There are two ways of preparing ful in Madinah, one is made of hand-crushed fava beans and the other is prepared with the whole bean. The preparation of ful varies from region to region in the Arab world. Lebanese foul overflows with the flavours of lemon, olive oil and garlic whilst Egyptian ful is made with olive oil, parsley, cumin and tahini.