1.How to pray while travelling
2. How do I find halal food overseas?
Credit: GiphyOne of the most difficult challenges that we face as Muslim travellers is finding halal food overseas. Several countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have their local Muslim authorities that provide halal certification. But outside of these countries or in regions such as South America and Europe, it might be difficult to find out what is suitable or not.- Do they have halal-certified meat? (Some restaurants may serve a fully halal menu alongside alcoholic beverages due to local drinking customs. Other places may have specific items such as chicken or beef that are halal-certified.)
- Do they have seafood, vegetarian, or vegan options? (Seafood options are safe to consume, whereas many places that are purely vegetarian or vegan will have little to no animal byproducts at all.)
- Is it possible to remove alcohol or other animal byproducts from the selected dishes? (For example, ask if you can substitute beer-battered fish and chips for grilled fish or a different batter. Other alcohol or animal byproducts to look out for include gelatin, shortening, oil derived from non-certified beef or other animals, cooking wine, and vanilla extract.)
3. How do I ensure the utensils at my accommodation are suitable?
- You can use a shared fridge or microwave. If you are very particular, you can ensure there is no direct contact of your food with the non-halal food by properly wrapping your food before placing it in the fridge.
- You can still use the utensils (e.g. cooking boards, pots, pans, forks, spoons) provided, just make sure that it is clean. According to Imam Annawawi, there is no need for you to do ritual cleansing (sertu) if you are confident with the cleanest of the utensils. However, if you are not comfortable with that option, you may wish to bring the sertu soap. It is so easy now that you can find it at selected supermarkets in Singapore! You may wish to refer to MUIS’ Contemporary Irsyad Series for a more detailed explanation.
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