Same in Oklahoma City and Tulsa :-). The Persian restaurants would be open at night for the "fasting" Moslems. Plenty of gigs for belly dancers in those days, if they didn't have day jobs to go to!
That's what Ramadan is. Fasting during the day, marked with special prayer, and a party feeling at night. It's not Lent.
Starting tomorrow, I am only going to be online about 3 hours a day (and considering that I live on FR, that is definitely a sacrifice.)
There is fasting, and there is fasting.
Short term fasting is often done with bread and water or cold turkey.
I've done bread and water fasting. It's not pleasant.
Long term fasting (like I did during the Iraq war) you can't just do bread and water.
I did reduced food quantities, with very little meat.
In the old Lenten days, it was the custom to eat only once a day. And if you had heavy labor, you could eat a little more in the morning (called a cotillion). And a similar in the evening I guess. Thus we came to one full meal and two lesser.
The orthodox tradition has some good fasting guidelines, if you are exploring it.
Now I've been on a diet for six months. Trying to figure out how to fast when I already eat 500-700 calories or so less than normal for my weight.
My hubby and I chose awhile back to go back to the meatless Fridays as our sign of penance on Fridays. I told him this Lent it will be Wednesdays as well. He tends to be agreeable on spiritual things. He's sweet that way.