Monday, April 28, 2008

"Halal Halal".

I'm getting pretty pissed off right now with regards to the food situation here. Firstly, my cooking is terrible. So yar. Most meals I have are pretty bad. Secondly, almost all the halal places we know here are Middle Eastern food (shoarma, kebab etc) and each shop sells the same things; only the quantities and tastes differ, that too only slightly. And I would like to share some other instances with regards to "halal" food myself and Fadhil encountered.

Firstly, the Indonesian restaurant I blogged about some time back. That one is halal, like, really halal. HOWEVER, the food is 'basi' (stale) all the time! 3 times we went there, all 3 times the food was stale. So we decided, enough is enough is enough is enough. That was the last Kak Rina (the shopowner) saw of us.

Few weeks ago, we were cycling around town and we saw this Moroccan restaurant. It had the shape of a mosque on its signboard, so we naturally thought it was halal. We entered, and asked the Arab owner whether it was halal. He gave us the what-was-to-be-standard answer,"Halal halal." He then lit a candle on the table and asked us to sit. That was when we say numerous bottles of wine on a shelf inside the shop. We then politely took our leave.

Last week, we went to this Malaysian restaurant. We looked at the menu placed outside the shop, and no wine or pork was sold. All the dishes were Malay food on top of that! We were so damn excited. When we entered, we saw a waitress, who was Chinese. We asked her, and got the usual reply, "Halal halal." But, all the workers were Chinese. I doubt they even knew what halal means. So we were "was-was", and didn't eat there.

Yesterday was the worse. The incident that really pissed me off. We googled for Malaysian restaurants, and found the address of one. It was located on this cosmopolitan street, whereby there were all kinds of restaurants from all over the world: Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese etc. We went to the Malaysian one since it claimed on its website that it was halal, but again wine and beer was sold. 2 shops away, there was an Indon restaurant. And from outside, I saw the names "Allah" and "Muhammad" being put on the counter, just like the ones we put at our homes. We went in happily, thinking to ourselves, "Finally"! To our dismay and disgust, beer was sold. Which didn't really piss me, coz even in Indonesia that is rather common. What pissed me off was when i asked the owner, whether the food was halal, she shrugged her shoulders! I felt like slapping her there and then, and asking her to remove the "Allah" and "Muhammad" from her shop. What? You don't even know if your food is halal? Bloody nonsense. And if it's not (which obviously is the case), then don't freaking put symbols of Islam in your shop lah! And i don't get these people: if you really are selling halal food, why sell alcohol? You're Muslims some more! I don't get it man, i just don't. I think drinking alcohol is 1 thing, selling it is another. I just don't understand them.

For now, I just have to make do with my crap cooking and the shoarma. It's not that bad lah, I'm more pissed off at these people than at the fact that i have to eat the same thing everyday. But we won't stop our search for non-basi halal food. And i'm sure along the way, there will be a few more times yet that we'll hear the words, "Halal halal" being repeated to us.

28 comments:

Anonymous said...

wah nie dh mcm apek kat TPJC bile tanye pasal sandwich..

us: apek nie sandwich halal?

apek: *while separating sandwich into two rows* ah hala hala..

-padahal padahal. kat menu tulis jual pork chop-

Anonymous said...

hey you! I can totally understand what you're going through. my family and I had the same problem back when we were holiday-ing at spain, a loooooong time ago. haha. but keep searching, u'd find one eventually. =)

Walid said...

Hey Fadhila! It's been a long time. Hehe. Glad you could show up here. Oh thanks thank. Actually halal food isn't really a problem, getting non-middle eastern halal food is! Haha. But i shouldn't complain, coz it's good enough that there is halal food! And you went to Spain???? Wow.

Walid said...

Haji, that comment should be at the TPJC entry! Haha. Aku pun teringat tu sak bile dorang cakap "halal halal". Perangai same mcm Apek TPJC sak.

nana said...

aiyo! my poor hungry bro... hope this link helps u.
http://www.zabihah.com/sp.php?l=amsterdam

Walid said...

Wah! Thanks Kak! =)=)=) I hope it's really halal this time! But really, thanks a lot! I'll start exploring the shops from that link soon. =)

gad_ash said...

Ooh... had the same problem in the great land of Ozzie... once, i went to this arab looking shop and asked the waitress if they sell halal food... she did the same thing, mumble "halal halal"... then i looked at the menu and they sell ham and stuff.. So i left... haha..

but i did find a turkish shop selling kebab... i think i spent every day lunching there. and i didnt get bored of it at all...

Anonymous said...

Haha! I was just about to give you the link where I saw that our dear cuz has already given you. Well, so much for AMS. Just now I went Furama Hotel, Tiffany restaurant certified halal by MUIS. We always had the buffet spread & most of the chef were Muslims as well (they come out to top-up the food). Today we ask for the menu coz we are treating our bosses & thought they may want ala carte. Guess what! In the menu, they had wine. My Chinese fren asked me 'eh halal, how come they serve wine'.......I told her don't think they serve here. But I'm going to email my MUIS fren tom & ask her about it. Guess, we are going to see more of this in the so-called Cosmopolitan world ;-)

Anonymous said...

On a separate note, yesterday I watched documentary on Nostradamus. According to scholars, his drawings showed that the Apocalypse will occur when the lines on the earth meet. Speculated to be in 2012. Maybe you should write your next blog on this & see what r your frens views......... ;-)

Anonymous said...

Haha, reminds me of BKK! Remind we went to the KFC & they showed you the flour with the halal logo. Haha, of course the flour is halal! What about the chicken????????? That is the main issue, not the flour! ;-)

Walid said...

Oh, Nostradamus? I actualy read quite a number of his predictions, and saw the documentary about it. His predictions were al so vague lah! Of course it can be applied to any future happenings! His supporters are the ones who exaggerate his so-called accuracy, padahal takde pape pun.

And cosmopolitan? Haha. I don't even know what halal means already to some people.

Haha, so Geminigal and Ash have encountered the same probs too? I'm sure we are not alone! Haha. And Gad, maybe your utility is just different from mine. =)

Anonymous said...

well the situation didnt change much even after u graduated. it was still the same response: "hala hala all hala" and to think e auntie tried to sell me Ham sandwich?! klau egg sandwich at least i can understand.. but HAM? riight.

*only difference was tt there werent any apeks at the sandwich area. if that helps :P

Anonymous said...

nostradamus? that bloke had most of his predictions debunked. so yea. anyways. regarding ur cooking skills, i can help. or a certain person can help. check up youtube. go to nigella lawson on nigella express or gordon ramsay. they teach u how to prepare quick meals in much lesser time. since they are european, so most of the produce can be found in the local market. so look it up yea. after all a way to the man's heart is thru his stomach. cheers bro.

Walid said...

Oh, thanks Aizat. After all, i need to try something different soon. But i dunno why u mentioned the "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach". Sounds creepy. Haha. Thanks again.

And Mism, haha, that;s just funny lah. May i know who you are though?

gad_ash said...

or maybe cos the turkish shop had this mix and match kebab thing... you can choose between 3 types of bread, 10 types of sauce, with/without cheese, and u can choose beef, chicken, mutton, and even fish...

fish kebab. sounds weird, but tastes awesome...

mmmm... miss perth already...

haha... oi, abeh my cooking tips u never use, ade hati nak copy Nigella and Ramsay? ape je walid...

Anonymous said...

lol.. well, if we enjoyed the same type of food, i'd share simple 3 ingredient kinda dishes..

but yes, this whole halal confusionism thing is prevalent EVERYWHERE.

Walid said...

Haha, Shikin, my dishes also 3 ingredients. Ayam, telur and sayur. And i mean 3 ingredients. No salt etc! Haha. Oh well.

And Gad, please send me the cooking tips again. Dunno where i put lah. Haha.

Anonymous said...

Imagine... kalau kau boleh masak prata... kau boleh masak prata kosong, telur, cheese etc and kalau semangat leh upgrade to murtabak...

Wasted ah lid... Haha.

Ok i foresee personal attacks coming my way very soon... Oh well, if it makes you guys happy. Bring it on... hehe.

Walid said...

Haha, Mas, i shall proceed with the continuation at TPJC nye entry nye comments. Haha.

Anonymous said...

Mas kalau kau datang Miami dah jadi millionaire. Prata kat sini US$5 sekeping.

Anonymous said...

apa? apa? tu after tpjc ah... mas conned aku pergi. i dont know how he managed to do that ah.

Anonymous said...

random dok... ni semuer random.

mypersonalbrand said...

hahahaha.. ham and cheese halal eh...

ni bukan cosmopolitan...


ini cosmpolisetan!

Walid said...

Haha, cosmopolisetan? That's a good one.

And Fiz, kau kena con ke kau yang con Mas????

Walid said...

Man, 1 step at a time. Let them takeover the Singapore prata industry first, then can think about the US one.

Anonymous said...

Advice#1:
Korang ni... be careful with what you wish for... you might actually get it!

but not this time ah...

And fiz... kau jgn nak buat kelakar kat sini eh. At least aku ade try buat kat rumah a few times and jadi lagi... haha. Nasib baik its in the blood.

US$5 eh? kiwak terpaksa apply for SEP sekarang jgak...

ah man Miami satu man!

Anonymous said...

the one who accidentally went to a bible site instead. >.<

Walid said...

Oh Mism, noted noted. Hehe. Nice of you to drop a comment. Hehe.

And whoa whoa prata brothers, there's no need to start bickering among ourselves now!

In all honesty, I could do with a prata right now!