It's been a million months since my last entry. Maybe I've lost some of my readers already. LOL! Tapi takpe. Anywayz, today I felt obliged to at least write a few words in my blog. To many this might be uninteresting... but Alhamdulillaah, recently, quite a few information seekers have landed on this blog looking for "Halal Protein Powder" or "Halal Protein" and other halal supplementation related stuff. One particular user wanted to know whether the halal certification for Prostar Whey has been renewed or not. 

Well, Alhamdulillaah... it has been. And all the products that were certified from 2009-2010 seem to still be in concordance with the 'halal standard' up till now. The products are (which can also be viewed in the certificate)

1. PROSTAR 100% Whey Protein (1-lb [454-grams], 2-lbs [907-grams] and 5.28-lbs [2.39-kilograms])
2. Muscle Juice 2544-Chocolate and 2544-Vanilla flavors (4.96-lbs [2.25-kilograms] and 10.45-lbs [4.75-kilograms])
3. Amino 2002 (300 and 500 tablets)

In all, thank you Ultimate Nutrition for your efforts to get certified and thank you also to IFANCA for keeping up the good work. Hope this info has been useful :) Assalaamualikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakatuh.

[SORRY, BUT I HAD TO REMOVE THE PICTURE OF THE CERTIFICATION

I AM ACTUALLY NOW ALLOWED TO POST IT PUBLICLY HERE. TO OBTAIN THE

CERTIFICATE FOR YOURSELF, PLEASE EMAIL JBrown@ultimatenutrition.com (Julia Brown)

FROM ULTIMATE NUTRITION]

Updated halal certificate for Ultimate Nutrition supplements... 

which includes the Prostar 100% Whey Protein series.

Yeay! Can use without was-was

(the English translation for was-was is "doubt")

A few weeks ago, myself and Dr Azrul Hazri Jantan sent an email to Mines Wellness Hotel citing our reasons for not being able to hold our conference at their establishment. The main issue was their kitchen, which did not have halal certification. Long story short, they immediately replied telling Azrul that they were going to get the certification very very soon! Well... I personally thought this was their way of trying to hold on to their potential customers... but then, yesterday (I think), they made good of their word and provided us with the cert :) It wasn't from JAKIM, but from MAIS (Majlis Agama Islam Selangor), which is as good!!! Janji ada certification from a proper body/organization ye dok :) If you look at the date... 20th July 2011.... whoa... how fresh can you get? Hehehehe.... Alhamdulillaah.... :D Satu lagi halal hotel on the list :D Okes. Itu saja mau cerita hari ini. Assalaam aleykom WBT dan Ramadhan Mubarak!!!

JAIS Halal Certificate for Abdul and Charlie Kitchen, MINES Wellness Hotel,

Jalan Dulang, Mines Resort City, 

43300 Seri Kembangan, Selangor Darul Ehsan...

siap address sekali tu :P

Ok. I didn't read this one sampai habis lagi.... Tapi sapa nak baca, sila lah baca iya tuan? :D

(Thanks MMQ Imran for the link to this useful article)

An article published online (offline pun ada ke?) yesterday realized my fears that kopitiams around Malaysia aren't actually 100% halal. Please refer here for the article. It seems that, some of the private halal certificate providers simply conduct their halal 'check' via the telephone. I mean... this is so not the way to do it. 

Why? Because (most) non-Muslims don't understand fully what halal is all about... So what they think is halal, might not be in actuality, halal. It's the job of the halal cert provider lah to make sure things are safe to be consumed by Muslims. If they dare to set up companies to do such jobs... they SHOULD do it properly, because the main thing is not the monetary gain. But the guarantee that the food is safe to consume.

Some as who is to blame? JAKIM for having too strict rules that some eateries just ignore going through them and instead go for the private halal companies? The private companies... well of course they want $$$. Making $$$ is not wrong, as a matter of fact it's encouraged is Islam. But when ure tying  religious beliefs to the business,  make sure you do a good job... cuz that knot you tied might just be the knot that pulls you down to the depths of "unknown" 

Arigato

(Firstly, TQ Arin for the valuable info.)

Referring to this article, this is the situation that really2 gets most Muslims mad. I for one am very2 pissed off at the level of neglect shown by the suppliers of such products. If you really2 want to cater halal chicken for Muslims, please do it properly. Of course JAKIM will come once and give you the certificate, but please do maintain the standards demanded by Muslims, since you are catering for Muslims! (I am refering to Hy-Fresh here, whose chicken was found to be NON HALAL!!!)...
(what is NAVIFATION btw??? - refer to the Hy-Fresh website (rhetorical question iya...))

If you see from Hy-Fresh's group of companies, two names that pop out are non-Muslims

1. Perniagaan Ah Siong Sdn. Bhd. (583473-A)
2. Pua Tian Siong Sdn. Bhd. (684588-V)

I realize that they must have really2 worked hard to achieve JAKIM's standards to be certified halal. But based on what has happened before (with TESCO also), these companies are really getting on Muslims' nerves as they are continually performing below standards! I realize that maybe they don't fully understand what halal means. But please... KEEP to the standards that you have shown to JAKIM! This halal haram thinggy is not a game for Muslims! If you don't understand it, that's OK! But don't slack off and do cincai cincai work in ensuring the halal-ness of the product!

Halal and Haram are not things that gets irrelevant over time. Muslims made a pledge in the form of the Shahadah (declaration of faith), and we intend to keep to that pledge by trying our best to live our lives based on the terms set by God (Allaah)! And eating HALAL food is one of those terms.

So, TESCO! This is the I don't know this is kali ke-berapa that you've been caught selling haram chicken. Get your act together lah TESCO weh!!! And as for Hy-Fresh, please do employ proper Muslims to semeblih ure chicken... and please, respect Muslims' beliefs!

Anywayz, I think it's time that it's made compulsory that all halal food suppliers (raw meat that is), that require slaughter, are Muslims. I don't mean Malay... but Muslims... So that insyaAllaah, the quality and standards can be more confidently maintained....

Marah lagi ni.... dah le aku dok penang? Marang perapu keponten parang skeper betul....

Assalaam aleykom WBT. Actually, dari zaman dolu lagi, I wanted to test the food @ Manhattan Fish Market. Tapi tak tertest-test due to it not having the halal certification from approved bodies/organization. Some may say, "Aiyoooo!!! Ikan pon takkan la leh haram?" ... maybe true, but you never know what's in the ingredients ye dok? Anywayz... now it's confirmed that Manhattan Fish Market food premises have halal certification. You can try out this link to check... but in case it doesn't work:

1. Go to http://www.halal.gov.my

2. Click on the DIREKTORI HALAL MALAYSIA image (should be on the right hand side of the webpage) 

3. Key in your search term, in this case - manhattan. There are a few tabs showing the halal information for the company itself, the food premises etc.

Anywayz, it has come to my attention that some people think that some people (such as myself :P) are too particular about this halal haram thinggy. That I make my life difficult by being too selective, strict and paranoid! 

For discussion's sake, let me clear up a few things by giving two main arguments:

1. It's imperative for Muslims to seek halal food. Clear and simple rule. Not difficult to follow, not burdensome on the soul;
2. For myself, I categorize food outlets into two:

• If it's operated by Muslims, then no problem. I won't seek any certification. We as consumers can also judge by the place's cleanliness... and  All Mighty God gave us a brain and heart so that we can 'feel' whether or not there's something wrong with the place,
• If it's a franchise and owned by Non-Muslims (or even Muslims), then I'd seek certification. Because we never know how the food is being processed. Dah banyak dah kes2 pelik yang berlaku sebelum ni ye dok about halal certs. being revoked... Learn from the past bak kata RAFIKI dalam Lion King :P So kalu ada certification yang buleh dipercayai kalo... then ok la, bules makan :D Tapi kalau setakat 'HA LAM ALIP LAM' tulisan kaler ijau atau itam tu je... haaa, then U'd have to think that there's something wrong. Asal takde proper halal sign? Orang tak reti jawi can oso come up with the sign by copying any existing halal sign ye dok. So, kalau takde badan yg mengesahkan... then I think it's best to avoid lah. Betui dok? :)

Tu je la pon the strictness level that I apply. Idok le strict sangat ye dok? Logik pon logik rasanya.

Anywayz... for the Manhattan Fish Market halal status thinggy... Yeous. I waited for it even tho it took more than 2-3 years (first wanted to eat in 2007 kot? tapi takde halal cert :P). Now dah ada, insyaAllaah buleh pi makaan... Okes, sapa2 ada cadangan atau recommendations on what to order? 

Oraits... Assalaam aleykom WBT.

==========================

Side note... sometimes pelik apa pasal dia orang guna itu jawi punya huruf utk. spell the abbreviated tulisan Rumi. This actually happens with Maktab Perguruan Islam also... MPI is also written as 'AIN YAA MIM PAA YAA ALIF YA (of was it 'AIN YA)

Today, let's take a look at Ayam Kampung a.k.a. Village Chicken (suka hati aku je a.k.a., walhal orang tak penah panggil macam tu pon ye dok? tapi takpe...). Compared to its more unfortunate counterpart the market chicken, the village chicken has a better life before being slaughtered. They are also healthier due to the 'freedom' granted by their owners to wander around the compound of the house (and also kadang2 tersesat pegi compound rumah orang lain) and can go about their business of pecking the tanah. 

As a result of this freedom and tons of healthy activity, the village chicken can be equated to a 100-meter dash athlete, whereas their bred-for-hypermarkets counterparts are comparable to a glutton with almost no life... But at least they are better than human gluttons, because these chickens are coerced into eating tons and tons of food and injected with God-knows-what to make them grow OH so fast. Due to this also, the hypermarket chickens, even though seemingly bigger and healthier, are obese and full of adipose tissue :)

Anywayz... I went back to my wife's kampung recently... and my dad-in-law sembelih-ed a few of his chickens. During the process of 'bubuti' by my mom-in-law (JAVANESE for plucking the chicken's feathers), the chicken's skin was a bit yellow. Hmmm... maybe this was due to it being exposed to the sun so much... jadik ada tan sikit :D But... what surprised me the most was the inner organs (organ dalaman ayam)... You see, when I clean the chicken bought at the local market or TESCO, the inner organs such as the heart, liver, gizzard [pedal ek?] etc. are normally covered with layers and layers of fat.

So much so, that at the end of things, I have to really really really scrub my hands to get rid of the oily residue. But this kampung chicken... man, the inner organs were so clean and lean, you can find very little fat covering them. Of course not 0% fat la (even bodybuilders during competition have at least 3-5% body fat :P)...  but only the necessary fats :)

Of course, the meat is a bit tougher... but I think when U actually see the process from slaughter to cooking... you wont mind it that much since you know ure eating a healthy bird who most probably lived life to the fullest and to the happiest... compared to their market-fated friends. Okes... Here are a few snapshots... Salaam aleykom.

Papa Chicken

Mama Chicken and her chicks

Chicken accommodation

Bubuti by the expert hands of Hajah Rugayah Darus

After bubuti...

Organ dalaman ayam kampung... 

Gizzard... if ayam market, penuh gila lemak

The other inner organs

Telur ayam (chicken egg) dalam proses nak menjadi...

Some more unexplored land belakang umah mertua

Explored land belakang rumah mertua :)

Was walking around JUSCO Bandar Perda (Penang darat area) one day with my family. This was way back when... I forget :) Anywayz, normally before eating at any of the eateries in any shopping complex, I'd make sure that they have halal certification. Normally, I'd be looking for the JAKIM or ASIA PACIFIC or SINGAPORE halal seal. But on the outside wall of one particular restaurant, I saw one halal sign without anybody's seal around it (the picture above). But there was a phone number, and the name SAS-H CONSULTANTS Sdn. Bhd. At first I thought they were sticker makers :P But then, I also thought they could be the people who actually certified this restaurant as being halal.

As many know, I am now still doing my PhD... and as many PhD do-ers know, there is always something better to do than PhD related work... heheheh. So I took the initiative to call these people. One relatively polite (Malay I think) gentleman picked up the phone... and basically told me that they are a private organization that provides halal certification. Of course I menyamar la to be someone interested to get certification. Based on what he told me regarding the procedures, it seemed quite valid :) He also mentioned an auditing process before the final certification can be given.

Alhamdulillaah, now I have another halal logo that I can possibly trust. Hopefully they do proper work la... because if cincai2 only to give halal certification, then susah la... who to trust anymore nowadays in a world dominated by the RM/DOLLAR/REN MIMBI/RUPIAH/KRONER/POUND STERLING/EURO sign? :D

Okes... I end this post with some halal plates :D [never knew halal signs existed for plates... ]... Assalaam 'aleykom.