Chinese food, pork and the Middle East

[Amdir_Flassion]

Chinese food uses quite a lot of pork, but I'm wondering how do Chinese restaurants cope with the dietary habits in Middle Eastern countries? Like in the Middle East, most people are either Muslim or Jewish, and both religious groups forbid eating pork. Chinese restaurants would obviously have to change the ingredients right? And I'm wondering what do they use as substitute meat? Goat? Camel? (Imagine a camel-meat spring roll )

[skylee]

Why, its mutton. There are a lot of muslim in China (like in Xinjiang) and they eat mutton. When I was in Xinjiang and we were really tired of it sometimes we got to eat some chicken. But I don't know about Chinese restaurants in middle east.

[wushijiao]

You can go to Muslim restaurants "Qing Zhen" and they usually have a lot of the same dishes, but without pork and pork sauce. They're usually for Hui and other ethnic minorities. These restaurants aren't hard to find in the West or North. And yes, mutton, is the main meat.

[39degN]

You can go to Muslim restaurants "Qing Zhen" and they usually have a lot of the same dishes, but without pork and pork sauce. They're usually for Hui and other ethnic minorities. These restaurants aren't hard to find in the West or North. And yes, mutton, is the main meat.

yeah! 清真, i dont like it, their foods are really boring!

[Guest iCEeYEs]

i really like QingZhen,the materials they use to instead of pork is beef and chicken.

When was in colleage i and my friends always play basketball in the noon,then after swab down ,we go to that restrurant.

FUN

[TSkillet]

It's not just an issue for the middle east . . . Chinese food is amongst the most popular foods for Americans of Jewish heritage - as noted by the old joke:

If the Jews have been around for 6,000 years and the Chinese for 5,000 - what did they eat for the first 1,000 years?

[DaMo]

Good one!

Having lived out my youth in an Arab country in the Middle East, I know that Chinese food isn't really very popular there. In fact, I never ate real Chinese food until I came to America. Hell, I never even met a Chinese until I came to America. The Chinese food over there is usually made by Indian or Philippino restaurants. And of course, no pork.

Of course, after coming here, I've really gotten into Chinese food. I wonder if I could be part Jewish

[39degN]

To what can our life on earth be likened?

To a flock of geese,

alighting on the snow.

Sometimes leaving a trace of their passage.

-- Su Shi (1037 - 1101)

your signature is interesting, is that 《和子由渑池怀旧》?

人生到处知何似，

恰似飞鸿踏雪泥；

泥上偶然留指爪，

人生那复计东西。

but the 飞鸿 are not geese, they are wild geese

haha, i found this smilie is really silly.

[skylee]

I think it is -

人生到處知何似，應似飛鴻踏雪泥。泥上偶然留指爪，鴻飛那復計東西。

[39degN]

yeah! seems your version is the official one by googling!

silly me, same words almost never appear in one poem. i didnt notice the two "ren sheng" here.

[Ian_Lee]

In the restaurants in Xinjiang, they mostly serve mutton.

But there is a problem with it. For those squat toilets attached to these Muslim restaurants (By the time I went to Xinjiang in early '80s, all those restaurants were very dilipidated) got a really muttony smell even at several blocks away.

Normally I had to light a cigarette before I went in (I don't smoke) to get rid of those smells.

Actually in HK there are a few famous Muslim restaurants. One of them specializes in making roasted duck and curry mutton brisket.

Moreover, all those animals that are slaughtered for consumption by the Moslems in HK's butchery have to be blessed (I don't know if this is the correct word) by the local Imams before they are killed.

[Guest Jasmine]

chinese are moslems too?????

[tokyo_girl]

Only some Jasmine.

There are large numbers in Xinjiang province.

Some Chinese muslims are Han Chinese many aren't.

[DaMo]

Moreover, all those animals that are slaughtered for consumption by the Moslems in HK's butchery have to be blessed (I don't know if this is the correct word)

It's called "Halal". It's a bit like the Jewish concept of "Kosher".

[kokleong]

My mum runs a rice stall that caters to the office workers in a large building. Being in a Moslem country, the food must be halal. Besides seafood, she uses mainly chicken and rarely beef or mutton (expensive and the bulk of the customers who're ethnic Chinese don't eat beef/mutton).

[Guest Chan]

THere are plenty of Chinese meals with anything else than pork. I myself often replace pork by turkey when cooking. Tastes also good

[underscorex5]

When I was visiting Kuwait I remember only ever seeing one Chinese restaurant. (It was actually behind my mom's apartment) they just didnt serve pork. It wasn't a huge deal, they just had lots of other items avaliable. no problem:)

Interesting post.

Ange