Enjoying halal food in Beijing

One of the difficulties as a Muslim who live in a non-Muslim city is getting  halal foods, foods that are allowed under Islamic law

But, in Beijing, you can find  many restaurants that provide good food and clean with halal sign easily. Those restaurants called their self as a Muslim restaurant.  For example, near the place where I live in Lido area, Chaoyang district, precisely in Jingtai Road, there is a Muslim restaurant that provides halal food.

From the outside, that restaurant is not different from other Chinese restaurants, except the sign “halal” in the restaurant’s name.

When I and my family entered to the restaurant, a female waiter who wear jilbab (headscarf) welcome my presence and kindly invited me to have a sit. After we got a seat, I started to look around first before I order foods. From the photos on the restaurant,’s wall, it is known that the restaurant belonged to a Chinese Muslim from Xinjiang Province, a province with a Muslim majority in western China that borders with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan and India. It is no wonder that the food in this restaurant is cooked in Xinjiang style.

After look around to the atmosphere of the room, then I ordered foods. For appetizers, we ordered spinach stir cooked with garlic mixed with peanuts and bean curd soup. For the main menu, I ordered beef cooked with onion, tomato sauce and peppers. In addition, I also ordered 4 lamb and 2 chicken wing sate. As for carb, I order the naan kebab with sesame on top. And for a drink, I ordered Chinese green tea.

The waiter recorded all our order electronically and sent it to the chef in the kitchen and the cashier.

Not long after, the food that I ordered arrived, ranging from stir spinach and soup, naan and beef kebabs. While the lamb and chicken wing sate were served some time later.

In contrast to spinach stir in Indonesia who was served warm, at this restaurant, spinach stir was served cold. It is a bit salty, spicy and sour. While a naan kebab with sesame on top was served warm. It’s reminded me to the Middle East kebab or Pizza bread.

Without lingering, we eat these foods with pleasure. To make the kebabs taste better, we eat it with warm beef cooked with onions and spices.

In general I enjoyed the food at this Muslim restaurant. The flavor of the food is pretty good and the price is relatively reasonable. For the five type of food that I ordered, I only charged a fee of 83 Renminbi or around 100 thousand rupiah.

One Response to Enjoying halal food in Beijing

  1. million chinese is moslem and the practice rites. i like it. islam came to chine before in indonesia

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