Nonetheless, the holy month on the Muslim calendar is a time for prayer, reflection and relaxation. Fasting during the day is supposed to teach self-control and empathy for those less fortunate.

On Tuesday, Ramadan will come to an end and the nation's half a million Muslims will celebrate Eid al-Fitr - the official end of fasting and a day for prayer, family and feasting. It is also the time Muslims are encouraged to make a charitable donation, or zakat, to the poor.

"Ramadan wakes people up," Mr Saleh says. "By fasting, you may feel how people suffer from hunger, so you know what it means and how it feels."

During Ramadan the iftar, or breaking of the fast, takes place shortly after sunset and typically involves gathering the entire family around a table for a feast. It begins with an offering of dates, whose nutrients are said to help circulation and boost energy for the night ahead.

At the Saleh home, traditional sweets sit alongside more child-friendly, contemporary options. Two-year-old Rimah is a fan of charcoal chicken, best eaten with homemade garlic sauce and a salad of lettuce, tomato and lebanese cucumber.

Tabouleh, fruit salad, potato chips, bread sticks, vegetable soup and rice cover the table, along with a jug of carrot juice, which rehydrates the body after a long day of fasting. For dessert, sweets include yoghurt or atayef, pancakes stuffed with cheese and cooked on one side.

Despite the hunger, Mr Saleh says it's not difficult to resist the temptation of food all day. "We enjoy doing it, it's not something that we're forced to do. It's healthy too, because it relaxes the body."

Most nights the family of five have iftar together, but on weekends they join other families who rotate hosting duties. Later in the night they usually venture down to Haldon Street, the main strip through Lakemba, where Mr Saleh owns a chicken shop.

Along with other stores it participates in a late-night Ramadan street festival that attracts hungry punters from as far as the north shore and Cronulla. Hungry buyers snap up camel burgers, cheese kaak and sahlab, a hot milk drink flavoured with coconut and cinnamon. Carrot juice is ubiquitous; Mr Saleh estimates he gets through up to 600 kilograms of carrots on his busiest nights.

Canterbury has the second-highest percentage of Muslims of any local government area in the state, after neighbouring Bankstown.

"Lakemba feels like home for every single Muslim in Australia," Mr Saleh says. "Because back home, that's how Ramadan looks like."