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May 16 - 2020
An Overview of Halal Asian Cooking
Trying out different foods is something we always do. It is
a perfect way of enriching our mind, body, and soul, as well as getting to know
some culture, its national cuisine and ingredients. Asian food is popular worldwide,
but Asian food doesn’t only refer to Chinese and Thai food.
An Overview of Halal Asian Cooking will look at the various
Asian food which includes East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Central
Asian, and Middle Eastern cuisines.
East Asian cuisine
East Asian cuisine consist of Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian,
Korean, and Taiwanese cuisine.
Chinese cuisine includes meat, rice, and vegetables.
Vegetables are almost always crisp, and meat is never overcooked.
Mongolian cuisine includes a lot of animal fat, meat, and dairy products. Spices and vegetables aren’t very common in this culture.
Korean cuisine is richer in spices than Japanese and Chinese
food. However, they don’t use as much seafood as they do in Japan, and also,
they use less oil than the Chinese. Koreans use red chili peppers, sesame
seeds, green onions, and ginger. Their technique of barbecuing beef is known
worldwide, and their food is enriched with soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic,
sesame oil, and dried anchovies.
Taiwanese cuisine includes ingredients like chicken, rice,
soy, and seafood, but beef is not very popular. Seafood is the most abundant
ingredient of the culture’s food, which includes sardines, tuna, grouper,
squid, anchovies, and cuttlefish. They also use fruit like papaya, melons, and
citrus.
Southeast Asian cuisine
Southeast Asian cuisine includes a variety of cooking styles
from the entire Southeast Asia. For example:
Bruneian – usually includes fish and rice. Beans are very
expensive there and therefore not widely used. Bruneian cuisine includes halal
food.
Burmese – includes different types of meat, fruits, and
vegetables.
Cambodian – traditional cuisine includes soups, desserts,
rice, noodles, and tropical fruits.
Indonesian – considering the fact Indonesia is consisted of
thousands of islands, they all have their unique cooking style, ingredients, and
methods. However, the country’s food in general is consisted of spices. Rice is
one of the most important ingredients that is part of almost every meal.
Laotian cuisine – the traditional cuisine of Laos. It’s most
famous type of food is sticky rice, but also fish is widely popular in the
culture’s cooking style.
Malaysian – Is one of the most complex cuisines in the
world. Its most popular ingredients include spices, rice, meat, vegetables, and
fruit.
Philippine – includes a lot of spices, soy sauce, beans,
seafood, and fruit.
Singaporean – is influenced by Malaysian, Chinese and Indian
cuisines.
Thai – includes fish, rice, noodles, and spices.
Vietnamese – fish and seafood are important part of the
culture’s cooking habits. They aren’t inclined to overuse oil. The most common
drink is tea and it is served with every meal.
South Asian cuisine
Southeast Asian cuisine includes traditional foods that are
prepared on the Indian subcontinent.
Amongst the various halal Asian cooking and recipes, Indian cuisine
includes the use of a wide usage of spices which are used for several purposes;
to enrich the foods flavors and to mask the odors (when the refrigerators
weren’t that popular).
Curry is the most famous Indian food. It has a gravy base,
and it is a spicy and hot dish. Curry dish is not the same as curry powder
(curry powder is the mixture of ten or more different spices). Other spices
used in Indian cooking styles are black pepper, cloves, and ginger. When it
comes to meat, Indian food includeslamb, goat, fish and chicken.
Central Asian cuisine
Central Asian traditional cuisine includes cooking styles
from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan.
Afghanistan’s cuisine includes wide usage of wheat, maze,
rice, and barley. They also use a lot of dairy products, vegetables, and nuts.
All of the food is prepared according to Islamic laws.
Kazakhstan’s cuisine includes a lot of horse meat and
mutton. Milk products are also widely used.
Kyrgyzstan’s cuisine is similar to traditional cooking style
of Kazakhstan. They also use a lot of horse meat and mutton, along with milk
products.
Tajikistan’s cuisine includes meat and vegetables. Their
national drink is green tea. They usually eat plov, rice that is cooked with seasoned broth.
Turkmenistan’s cuisine – they also eat plov, fruit,
especially melons, and they widely use naan (type of bread).
Uzbekistan’s cuisine – they use a lot of vegetables in their
food, and the most common meat is mutton. Their most famous food is palov which
is made of onions, carrots, rice, and meat.
Middle Eastern cuisine
Middle Eastern cuisine applies to all cuisines of that area,
except for Egypt. Their common ingredients include:
Cereals – are one of the most important ingredients of
Middle Eastern diet. They prefer rice and wheat, as well as barley and maize.
Butter – usually used in cooking instead of oil or olive
oil.
Spices – Middle Eastern countries use a lot of spices like
coriander, clove, cumin, and cinnamon.
Meat – favorite meat of Middle Eastern cooking habits are
mutton and lamb.
Vegetables – are usually prepared in stews, they are also
boiled, stuffed or cooked along with rice and meat. They also use cabbage,
spinach, onions, carrots, and turnips.
Dishes – the most famous dishes are those that include
stuffed vegetables ,which are called dolma.
Beverages – the most popular beverages are Turkish coffee,
fruit-based drinks and tea.
Cooking styles
As it was mentioned above, halal Asian cooking applies to a
lot of nations and parts of Asia; it is the biggest continent after all. That
is why cooking styles vary and they include:
Shallow frying
Deep frying
Steaming
Roasting
Stewing
Stir frying
Conclusion
Even though halal Asian cooking styles vary and so do
ingredients, there is one thing in common – the usage of rice, spices and
vegetables. Most cuisines stay away from oily foods. halal Asian cooking is one
of the most interesting cuisines due to its variety. Getting to know the food,
means getting to know the culture, and Asian food is definitely worth trying.
