Some moslems are very particular on what they eat. For them, halal food is a must. Example of non halal food or beverage are the ones that contain pork, blood, meat of animals slaughtered in the name of anyone but Allah, carrion, meat of carnivorous animals, khamr (all alcoholic drinks, beer, wine, gin, whisky, rum, vodka, tequila, etc.), and so on.
Flambéing or flaming food is an indicator of using alcoholic ingredient, which is non halal, in cooking
Halal certification in Indonesia is published by Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) after a comprehensive inspection of the food ingredients and processing. This certification normally must be renewed every two years.
Although some Sundanese restaurants don’t formally have halal certification, we can assume that all Sundanese food is halal. Sundanese are the original inhabitant of Pasundan (the land of Sunda) or West Java, whose capital city is Bandung. Almost 100% of Sundanese are moslem and they don’t have tradition of using non halal ingredients in their dishes. Same thing is applied to Minang/Padang food. As an illustration, it’s just like you buy Malay food in Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore, or Arabian food in the Middle East countries. You don’t need to ask anything. You can just convieniently eat it as you know it’s halal, even though they don’t have a formal halal certification.
You need to be aware though that many Japanese, Chinese, and Western restaurants in Bandung are using non halal ingredients.
- Japanese food: sake and mirin (categorized as khamr) are commonly used in their dishes.
- Chinese food: pork and cooking wine are commonly used here.
- Western food: meat of animals slaughtered in the name of anyone but Allah, as well as wine or any other alcoholic ingredient are commonly used.
Some of halal Chinese restaurants in Bandung are 499, Pagoda, and Atie. Halal Japanese restaurant in this city is even fewer, one of them is Gokana Teppan. Some of western fast food chains that have presence in Indonesia are halal certified, e.g. McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Pizza Hut. Currently there is very few detail on the halal status of western food in local restaurants and bakeries.
Even in some restaurants and bakeries that sell Indonesian food (excluding Sundanese and Minang/Padang restaurants) sometimes you need to be careful. Few of them, either consciously or not, are using cooking wine or rum in their dishes/pastries. Please be reminded that although more than 85% of Indonesians are moslem, but in general, Indonesia is a secular country (like Turkey) and there is no obligation for a restaurant to publish the halal status of their dishes.
If you are not sure and you want to know whether a restaurant serve halal food, feel free to ask the waitress or the chef of the restaurant politely. You may just walk away without ordering anything if you don’t think they serve halal food.
In this blog, you can find halal eating places in Bandung by clicking “Halal Food” tag. If we don’t provide such tag in our post, that means we are not sure. Places that are confirmed selling non halal food are tagged “Non Halal Food”.
