Halal Food Poll

[Henia 11]

I would like to know for all people here who eat halal or their SO eat halal...how their experience has been in their hometown... finding halal grocery shoppes and resturants... I was living in Michigan , where I had really not too much trouble finding halal food, resturants and shoppes. But I do have concerns if and when my husband were ever to come to Europe or the USA how he would fare with all the foods that are not halal and foods that have hidden non halal additives. I feel we in the USA in many areas are blessed to have so many places that offer halal food choices, unlike in Europe...where basically you have to eat veggies and fish... Countries like the UK, France and Germany do have some places, but not many...

I have been thinking on this topic for a while, esp since living here in Algerie...and was wondering how it is for of you and your SO newly coming to the USA...

Also I could not add what level of halal do you eat...I mean when I lived in Cali I was basically eating fish and veggies as I did in Europe...but when I lived in Florida for a brief time I started to eat chicken...started to care less if I ate halal meat, just as long it was not pork...but elhamdullah upon arriving in Michigan I rethought my choices as my menu choices grew to include lamb, beef, chicken,duck and turkey. I am not sure if I lived a place again where no halal meat would be availible if I would just be vegatrian again or just not eat pork....Sorry for all my babbling...Thanks everyone for your inputs...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I'm not Muslim (and heck I'm not even supposed to be posting in MENA anymore lol) but I will respond to this anyway. No of course I don't eat halal as a rule (since I'm not Muslim) but we've found that the best deals on meat in our area are from a Pakistani owned halal store. So all the meat we eat is halal. There is plenty of halal food stores within 5 miles of where I live. That includes halal restaurants too. Lots of good kabab places, even a halal Chinese place (haven't tried that, the store looks really messy).

[Ban Hammer 13,334]

I'm not Muslim (and heck I'm not even supposed to be posting in MENA anymore lol) but I will respond to this anyway. No of course I don't eat halal as a rule (since I'm not Muslim) but we've found that the best deals on meat in our area are from a Pakistani owned halal store. So all the meat we eat is halal. There is plenty of halal food stores within 5 miles of where I live. That includes halal restaurants too. Lots of good kabab places, even a halal Chinese place (haven't tried that, the store looks really messy).

oooooooooo you are so busted! you flip flopper!

[ya falaha! 0]

Like Henia said, in SE Michigan it's pretty easy to find halal markets and restaurants. The closest to me would be either in Dearborn or Hamtramck. Both of which are about 30 or so minutes from me. I don't always get out to these markets so I do on occasion buy meat and chicken from the local supermarket. I think when Mohamed gets here, ISA, I will get out to these markets at least once a week.

[Karen_L 1]

There is a halal slaughter house a short bus ride from my house in The Bronx and I pass it everyday. My husband doesn't eat halal and I'm vegetarian, but it would be reasonably easy to get if he ever decided to eat halal

Also, I remember that my neighborhood in Florence, Italy had quite a few halal food stores as well as a Doner Kebab with halal lamb rack.

[Jenn! 918]

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?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

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?

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.

Edited November 1, 2006 by Gupt

[UmmSqueakster 54]

I'll complicate matters and say we eat halal but not zabiha - that is, we avoid things that are haram, forbidden, such as pork and alcohol. That usually involves reading every single label to make sure there isn't anything hidden somewhere deep down at the botoom.

We don't eat zabiha, meat that is slaughtered in the Islamic manner. It's preferable, but we will buy meat from the regular groccery store or at a restaurant and say a prayer before eating it.

Moving to zabiha only meat is something we would like to do in the future, inshaAllah.

Edited November 1, 2006 by rahma

[Bosco 1]

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

Edited November 1, 2006 by Bosco

[Veiled Princess 1]

I answered yes yes and yes.... I'll explain my answers as most of you are aware there are not "halal shops" around me....

I follow the opinion that we are allowed to eat food from the christians and jews as long as it's not something forbidden, such as alcohol or pork. The majority in America is christian or jew and most of the places I eat are operated/owned by christians or jews.

I also eat a lot of seafood which is always halal.

I don't have any problems finding food that I consider halal even though I don't have those specialty shops around. Yes it requires a little more reading the aisle but it's all good.

[Jenn! 918]

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?

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 would assume you might get the same results by just going to a regular butcher, not just a halal one. I also noticed a difference in the taste of the meat when we were in Italy, going to the butcher every day to buy what we needed for that night.

I thought the whole point of the Islamic method of killing the animal is that there is *less* blood.

[Henia 11]

Well I do eat halal food, here and i did in the USA and Europe...there was a short period when I lived in FL when I did not eat halal always to the tee..I ate chicken too...but elhamdullah I did change that. My husband eats halal and always has in his life.

My plan is inchallah whereever we go to do our best to eat halal...but when I think about resturants that I did go to in that breif period of not eating halal, like steak houses and chinese resturants (I love shrimp fried rice)..I feel bad cos I am not sure if my husband will ever be able to enjoy those things I enjoyed then. Well I guess when I think of ajr then we are not missing out on anything...but snaps... does anyone know a halal japanese or american steakhouse and halal chinese place?

[Veiled Princess 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?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

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?

Fresh and because of price. And because I know the guys who run it (know them from college) and like them.

[Bosco 1]

I answered yes yes and yes.... I'll explain my answers as most of you are aware there are not "halal shops" around me....

I follow the opinion that we are allowed to eat food from the christians and jews as long as it's not something forbidden, such as alcohol or pork. The majority in America is christian or jew and most of the places I eat are operated/owned by christians or jews.

I also eat a lot of seafood which is always halal.

I don't have any problems finding food that I consider halal even though I don't have those specialty shops around. Yes it requires a little more reading the aisle but it's all good.

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.