halal cuisine in northwest china: exploring the modern way of health from the quran

every morning when it is dawn, ma zhiqing, the chef of local cuisine of daximen restaurant in xining, has already wiped his face, rinsed his mouth, cleaned his nose according to the requirements of the quran... and muttered a word in his mouth: "allah, please clear the filth of my hands and give me the dexterity of my hands..."

“clean and hygienic is the most basic requirement of modern health science, and the thousand-year-old quran has a strict set of regulations on these. "the imam of the dongguan mosque in xining city, qinghai province, cheng mingliang said.

since islam was introduced to china in the tang dynasty, in accordance with the "beautiful" and "legal" diet in the quran, halal food in northwest china has gradually developed and formed modern halal food that meets the requirements of islamic doctrines and the way of health preservation.

as the chef of local cuisine, xining’s “lao ba pan” is ma zhiqing’s best-known northwest halal dish. white strips of mutton, spicy and sour tenderloin, beef beef, crispy balls, pepper and chicken, high fragrance soup... these halal foods with unique northwest characteristics are not only delicious and sweet, but also nutritious.

“the hand-grabbing mutton with warm and tonic properties, and adding codonopsis to the cure pilosula during production has the effect of nourishing the middle and nourishing qi, harmonizing the spleen and stomach, strengthening the muscles and bones, and also has the effects of replenishing blood, eliminating phlegm and eliminating cough. "ma zhiqing said that a traditional hand-grabbing mutton, combined with the modern chinese medicine health concept, has been continuously evolved and developed, and has now become a halal mutton medicinal dish with strong soup and fresh flavor in the restaurant.

“the so-called halal means clean and pollution-free, and it is truly unique. "cheng mingliang said that the quran has strict requirements on almost every process of slaughtering, processing and production of halal food, but it does not limit halal food to absorb the essence of cooking from foreign dishes.

today, the northwest halal cuisine in china, in addition to the well-known traditional local snacks such as stuffed skin, yogurt, hand-grabbing, sweet mash, etc., also absorbs the cooking techniques of major mainland cuisines such as sichuan, hunan, shandong, and guangdong, forming a unique northwest halal cuisine.

for example, in the use of cooking wine, islam prohibits drinking, and the use of cooking wine is of course inconsistent with the doctrine. in order to achieve the effect of removing fishy and enhancing the flavor of cooking wine, the chefs kept trying and using a certain proportion of juice from green onions, ginger and garlic to make seasonings, successfully replacing the cooking wine, meeting the requirements of halality.

“now people's living standards have improved and their food requirements have been higher. many customers are very aware of the health effects of halal diet. i also hope that more people can like our halal diet, and eat delicious food while also making it healthy. "ma zhiqing said.