Arabic dietary taboos

In the vast majority of Arab countries, where Muslims are the main body, dietary taboos basically follow the provisions of Islamic law. The most common red lines are pork, self-dead animals, blood, poultry and livestock slaughtered without reciting the name of God, and alcoholic drinks. However, this boundary is never one-size-fits-all. The degree of secularization, sectarian differences, personal religious piety, and even religious groups in different countries will make the actual implementation of taboos vary greatly.

Don't think this is just a general statement. I was shopping for food at Carrefour in Dubai two years ago. When I turned around the seasoning area, I saw a separate area with a black curtain. The door was marked "Non-halal food area." When I opened the curtain and went in, I saw bacon, pork intestines, and pork chops neatly arranged. They were all sold to local non-Muslim workers and tourists. As long as you don't buy them and eat them in the public area, no one will care about them. But if you are thousands of miles away in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, let alone selling pork in front of you. If you enter the country with pork products in your luggage, you will be directly confiscated and fined if you are caught. In serious cases, you may even get into more trouble.

Speaking of which, we have to break the stereotype of many people: Do you think Arabs don’t eat seafood? Not really. I was visiting the seaside night market in Muscat, Oman. The whole street was selling charcoal-grilled prawns and pan-fried mackerel, and they were sprinkled with local spices and were so fragrant that I could hardly walk. As for crustaceans and cephalopods such as crabs, shrimps, and octopus, whether they can be eaten is actually a point of controversy among different sects: the Hanafi school of Sunni and the mainstream branches of Shia believe that such seafood is legal and edible, but some believers of the Shafi'i school and the Malik school think that such creatures are "weird in shape and unclean" and will not touch them. If you are visiting a local's home, it is best to ask in advance. If you are not sure, you will never go wrong by ordering fish and shrimp.

What we often call "Halal" is essentially a standardized product of this set of dietary rules. It is now commonly used in the global food trade, but the certification standards of different countries are also very different. Friends who are engaged in cross-border e-commerce in the Middle East complained to me that a halal sausage produced in Turkey was rejected when it arrived in Saudi Arabia. The reason is that Saudi religious scholars believe that a modifier added to the sausage does not meet their halal standards, even if it has been certified by Turkey.

Regarding the rules of slaughter, what impressed me most was when I visited a barbecue stall in the old city of Amman, Jordan. The bearded boss heard that I was from China and specifically held up the leg of lamb in his hand to emphasize to me that it was slaughtered by the Imam after reading the sutra that morning. The blood was drained and it was absolutely clean. He also asked me casually, "Do you Chinese all eat dog meat?" ”I explained to him for a long time that most Chinese people don’t eat dog meat at all, and then he happily cut a large piece of barbecue for me. In fact, the core of this set of slaughtering rules is to reduce the suffering of animals and drain the blood at the same time - after all, there was no cold chain in ancient times, and blood could easily deteriorate and cause diseases, which was considered the hygienic wisdom of the time.

And the standard of the wine is even worse. On the Marina Bar Street in Beirut, Lebanon, the neon lights are dazzling at night. Locals and tourists drink whiskey and dance disco together, and no one cares about it. ； In tourist resorts in Tunisia and Morocco, you can order cocktails as you like, and no one will tell you if you drink too much and sleep in the hotel all day. But if you take a bottle of wine and wander around the Muslim quarter of the old city, you will most likely be scolded by the locals. What’s even more interesting is that the “non-alcoholic beer” popular in many conservative countries even has the word “beer” on the package and replaces it with “malt beverage”. I drank it once and it tasted almost the same as beer, just without the alcohol content. It can be regarded as a compromise that the locals came up with to get around the rules. Don't believe it, I have seen local young people secretly stuffing this kind of drink into their shopping carts in Cairo supermarkets before, and looking left and right for fear of being seen by acquaintances. This is exactly the same as when I was in school buying spicy chips secretly for fear of being caught by my class teacher.

Don't think that all Arabs follow this set of rules. There are many Christian believers in Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Their diet does not have these taboos at all. Eating pork and drinking alcohol are daily activities. I previously attended a Christmas dinner of a local Christian family in Beirut. The roasted pork ribs on the table were so delicious that I still remember them. There are also many young Muslims who have studied in Europe and the United States. They also eat pork and drink alcohol in private, as long as they do not reveal their secrets in front of their elders or religious figures. This situation is especially common in countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which have a majority of foreign populations.

To put it bluntly, the food taboos in the Arab world are never a hard-coded list. It is more like a set of rules that flexibly change with the population, scene, and region. If you go to a local area to travel or discuss business, don't just rely on the general list found online. Ask local friends in advance, or observe what people around you do first. It is more reliable than anything else. After all, it would be embarrassing at best to step on the red line. If you get the right measure, you might be able to get along with your local friends squatting on the roadside while eating roasted leg of lamb, and then they will take you to taste their secret moonshine. Of course, don’t take this risk in a conservative country like Saudi Arabia. I won’t be responsible if I get caught.