Halal Food Poll

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

What's Halal? Is that Arab for "Kosher"?

Halal means they're allowed to eat it. I have no idea what the requirements are.

ETA: that is, besides the animal being killed slowly (at least that's how the Muslims in India do it) and not with a single swift stroke... and a prayer...

Edited November 1, 2006 by Gupt

[Veiled Princess 1]

What's Halal? Is that Arab for "Kosher"?

I'm not sure what kosher means in that language but halal is basically "allowed" in Arabic.

[Bosco 1]

We eat halal sometimes. We tried to more during Ramadan. I don't think halal meat tastes as good (beef I mean, chicken is the same), but Wadi thinks it tastes better, of course. Anyone else notice a difference?

Yes I have noticed the difference...halal meat is fresh, so not aged as much of the beef in the supermarkets...snaps and aged beef makes a real good steak....I miss steak...real steak from a steakhouse...so many yrs since I have eaten one! Ones I cook at home, not taste the same Again anyone know aof a halal steakhouse?

I definitely would agree that the halal meat is much fresher than what you get in the grocery store. But I still taste a difference between the halal beef and fresh beef from the butcher. I guess I'm the only one though!

I can certainly taste a difference between halal beef now and non-halal beef. Non-halal tastes better IMO. Chicken breasts taste the same to me, halal or non-halal.

[Henia 11]

Henia,

We eat halal. We have to drive at least 20 minutes or so (because of city driving) to get it. It is usually quite a big production. Either we call ahead and don't necessarily get the freshest looking meat and it still isn't usually ready, sometimes they don't have enough of something in, or we order when we get there and literally can stand their for hours as the guy rambles on and cuts our order. We tend to buy about 20 pounds of beef, 20 pounds of chicken and some lamb for my husband all at once, so it lasts a very long time. The other issue is that the closest butcher doesn't carry the things like sausage, etc. so that involves going to another shop. Also, we have found it hard to get quality cuts of beef, so we pretty much eat ground beef and chicken breasts. I have issues with meat on the bones, and that limits us even further We recently found a shop that was very clean and the meat looked fresh and they butcher the animals themselves twice a week rather than use some package of meat wrapped in plastic to cut from, but it is close to an hour away; however, they have the cold meats/sausages, and with how infrequently we need to go, we will probably end up going there from now on.

Restaurants are tough. We are very limited in that regard. Within about 5 miles of our house, there is a Persian place, Egyptian place, and a Italian place. However, my husband doesn't like the Egyptian place because they have dancers, lol.

We cannot get halal turkey around here, but I have ordered that online.

Probably more than you wanted to know

o actually i am so happy to read your post rebecca... i was thinking if we ever lived in places other then Michigan and Algerie...what would we eat? I mean we would do alot of driving...and searching I think. I was driving every weekend 30 min to Dearborn, Mi where I loaded up my car with MENA groceries and meats, etc...there were some in my area, but I did not find them too clean...and preferred the one in Dearborn.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

so what is everyone's opinion and their SO on eating non-zabiha meat and just saying prayer before eating it?> I think I am going to ask my husband too when he comes home... I am really curious on this...thanks everyone!

It was my husband's suggestion. I think I asked him if he wanted to eat only zabiha, but he's ok with the prayer beforehand, so there we have it.

[Bosco 1]

so what is everyone's opinion and their SO on eating non-zabiha meat and just saying prayer before eating it?> I think I am going to ask my husband too when he comes home... I am really curious on this...thanks everyone!

The only time my husband will do this is as a guest at someone's home when not eating the meat would be rude. If there are enough other dishes to eat a meal from, he will just avoid the meat.

[~ Karima ~ 0]

We cannot get halal turkey around here, but I have ordered that online.

Where did you order your turkey from? We are going to my parents for Thanksgiving and I need a halal turkey for Simo.

[Veiled Princess 1]

Outback Steakhouse's lamb is zabiha, but nothing else.

That's very cool... sucks about the butter I don't eat there because I'm not a real big steak (red blood) eater but I wonder if there's any kind of warning to let ppl know there is bacon in the butter.

[Henia 11]

We don't get halal beef, just chicken, lamb and goat. I think they do taste better than the ####### we get from the regular American grocery stores but I always assumed that was because the meat from our local halal store is just more fresh. They cut this stuff in front of you, clean it in front of you.. when they give me the bag, I can see blood. That's why it tastes better. I think.

I can't help but be curious... do you eat halal because of the halality (not a real word I know ) of it or just because the meat is fresh?

sorry to say VP halal meat is not always fresh... I found in butcher shoppes where they get little business...they only slaughter maybe weekly...and even here in DZ they only slaughter biweekluy..so ye it is fresh, but not fresh like they slaughtered it at 4am and you are buying it by like 10am.

Another quick point...we are again blessed i the USA that halal meat is not only halal, inchallah fresher then the supermarkets but also cheaper...halal meat in Europe is 3x as expensive as the regular meats in the non-halla shoppes I say htis from experience, living in Germany and Austria

[Bosco 1]

We cannot get halal turkey around here, but I have ordered that online.

Where did you order your turkey from? We are going to my parents for Thanksgiving and I need a halal turkey for Simo.

Midamar Halal sells turkeys. I haven't found turkey at any other online meat places .

[sarah and hicham 3]

There are no arabic stores here or any butcher shops with halal meat. Hicham knows that and it doesn't really matter to him since he knows the only other option would be to order meat online and we both don't even want to hassle with it. I think someone needs to open an Arabic store and halal butcher shop out here where we are in California.

[Bosco 1]

We don't get halal beef, just chicken, lamb and goat. I think they do taste better than the ####### we get from the regular American grocery stores but I always assumed that was because the meat from our local halal store is just more fresh. They cut this stuff in front of you, clean it in front of you.. when they give me the bag, I can see blood. That's why it tastes better. I think.

I can't help but be curious... do you eat halal because of the halality (not a real word I know ) of it or just because the meat is fresh?

sorry to say VP halal meat is not always fresh... I found in butcher shoppes where they get little business...they only slaughter maybe weekly...and even here in DZ they only slaughter biweekluy..so ye it is fresh, but not fresh like they slaughtered it at 4am and you are buying it by like 10am.

Another quick point...we are again blessed i the USA that halal meat is not only halal, inchallah fresher then the supermarkets but also cheaper...halal meat in Europe is 3x as expensive as the regular meats in the non-halla shoppes I say htis from experience, living in Germany and Austria

Some of the halal places around here do not even slaughter. It is packaged meat they have ordered from halal distributors. It comes out in plastic and they cut from it.

[Henia 11]

Yes ood point Cherry..I was buying fish from CHinese shoppes to...alive only minutes ago LOL

Note: food that is kosher is generally a SUBSET of that which is halal (in most cases, blood drained out of meat in both; but halal includes shellfish and crustaceans which are forbidden in kosher).

Generally, we try to stick to Levitical law (gets me in much trouble as Pras likes shrimp/prawns--which are forbidden in Levitical/kosher).

We buy chicken from kosher shop only, and have bought lamb from halal; fish from Korean grocer (H-mart) as we prefer it "live moments ago", but ensure Levitical (visible scales and fins).

Contrary to Jenn's assertion, halal/kosher chicken actually tastes BETTER (and is also better in medicinal properties).

[ya falaha! 0]

Off topic ..I'm staring at your banana ppl, Sarah...dag Hicham is gettin' jiggy with it.

[Veiled Princess 1]

My husband's belief on this opinion is that the Jews and Christians are not necessarily eating what was "halal" for them or following the guidelines given to them, and that you don't know if the source of the meat is from a Christian or a Jew. Not saying this to be argumentative or that you should agree (I feel I need a disclaimer), only that within that opinion, there is still room for interpretation.

The fact that the jews changed their dietary laws after God gave them is addressed in the Quran and we are still given permission to eat their food.

As far as the christains... well there aren't really anything forbidden to them since Paul declared all things were good and clean so I'm not sure what they're not following.

I agree there is room for interpretation in anything which is why I started my post with "I follow the opinion that..." and not "In Islam"

Do you see how I have become more PC for VJ????