Hong Kong Muslims Hail Outdoor Halal Food Festival
Members of Hong Kong’s Muslim community have expressed enthusiasm over the city’s increasing embrace of halal food and Muslim-friendly initiatives, highlighted by the first outdoor Halal Food Festival in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The event at Park Lane Shopper’s Boulevard was seen as a significant step towards greater inclusivity and recognition, aligning with the Hong Kong government’s ambition to establish the city as a destination for Muslim travelers.
“This is our first time seeing something like this in Hong Kong, and it’s really accepting,” said Sumayya, a long-time Muslim resident of Hong Kong.
“It’s a new thing for the city to be doing something like this, and I think it’s really cool that they’re accepting us Muslims and having this whole halal festival.”
Her friend Athiya added: “Over the past five years, I would say a lot of new halal catering options have opened up, and it’s been really helpful and convenient for us.”
The Halal Food Festival, co-organised by the M.E.L.T. Ethnic Minority Resources Centre and the Hong Kong Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community, aimed to showcase the growing availability and diversity of halal cuisine in the city.
Saeed Uddin, chairman of the trustees, expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the introduction of more halal-friendly eateries.
“At present we have around 280 restaurants, at hotels and some factories,” he said. “But we have increased our staff, and I think we can achieve the target of 500 [halal] restaurants ... by the end of this year”
Legislator Vincent Cheng Wing-shun, who is also chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong’s Ethnic Minorities Committee, also stressed the importance of embracing the local Muslim community while trying to woo more tourists who followed the faith.
“In Hong Kong, we have more than 300,000 Muslim people living here ... and they have been living here for such a long time,” he said.
“They are integrated into society, but they also have their own culture ... And we hope that after this festival, we can have more promotions to let people know that Hong Kong is willing and going to do more to become more Muslim-friendly in tourism.”
Participating restaurants at the festival included the long-standing Gaylord Indian Restaurant.
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Rajeev Bhasin, managing director of Silver Spoon Restaurants which owns Gaylord, said he had noticed a 5 per cent increase in Middle Eastern tourists patronizing the eatery over the past year, indicating efforts were already yielding some desired result.
“In our cuisine, we don’t sell beef and pork to please both the Muslim community and the Hindu community,” he said.
“It’s just the origin of food has to be a halal way of doing the butchering … We just follow those strict rules and procedures and so we keep everybody happy.”
Sohel Ahmed, director of Italian halal eatery Fog Restaurant, emphasized the broader appeal of halal food.
“I observed in the market there was no halal Italian food,” he said. “The market in Hong Kong is very wide, with lots of people of different cultures.
“Halal food can be for everybody, not just Muslims only … Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, everyone.”
His stall’s offerings included a pasta carbonara dish made with salmon instead of pork, a mango dessert and penne arrabiata.
The Kowloon Shangri-La is also taking part in the festival, offering halal-certified rice dumplings, which director of operations Mark Bannon said was in time for the coming Dragon Boat Festival in May, and a beef rendang dish.
The hotel was one of the first to be awarded the highest score of five out of seven by CresentRating, a Singapore-based research and consultancy firm commissioned by the Hong Kong Tourism Board to rate the city’s hotels on their Muslim-friendliness on a scale of one to seven.
Higher scores of six and seven would go only to specialized accommodation catering to “halal conscious” travelers, serving halal food and meeting most of their needs, according to CrescentRating’s guidelines.
Wooing Middle Eastern tourists has been on the Hong Kong government’s agenda for the past year, as part of a wider goal of boosting business ties with the region.
Source: scmp.com
