I will be presenting a paper on halal food in Hong Kong at the Crossroads ACS conference on the 17th of June.
I have put together some interesting snaps from across the city, but I particuarly like this one. Taken at Eberneezers takeaway in Wanchai we see a halal certificate on the left and to the side of the till on the right a collection of different beer bottles.
Whilst the Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic community fund approve of the meat used in the establishment, they do not certify the establishments themselves. For a number of Muslims the serving of alcohol on the premises t is an annoyance. When they see a business advertised as halal they believe that this means that the whole establishment is halal not simply the meat on offer (see this review of a Jordan curry house).
In Singapore establishments like McDonalds have applied for, and received, halal certification. In Hong Kong there are now over 220,000 Muslims but halal foods are often ambiguously detailed and large food chains have not sought halal certification.
Furthermore the prominence of pork in Chinese foods mean that Muslims in Hong Kong seldom eat Chinese food. There is an association that Chinese food is always haraam.
So, many Muslims (Pakistani, Chinese, and Indonesian) will visit some of the halal butchers that are dispersed across the territory. Here is one stall in Causeway Bay.
Finding halal food in Hong Kong can take some special effort. For those that live in the South Asian community, it is reasonably easy to access food stores, butchers, and restaurants that cater to halal diets. However young people at school, and Indonesian foreign domestic workers may find that there everyday environments problematise their halal diet.
