I think one of the reasons why my sisters brought my parents to Krabi is because it is easy to find halal food.

And it's true - there is really no need for recommendations for halal food in Krabi because they are everywhere! Which is something you'd come to expect when the population of the area is predominantly Muslim la haha. I still like to talk about food though (is that even a surprise...) so here are the things we ate in Krabi during our recent weekend trip:

First restaurant we went to after arriving in Krabi - Rakan Seafood. We wanted to eat before going to a tailor and it was the first halal restaurant we stumbled across (it is in between Holiday Inn Resort and the tailor shop we were headed to)

We spent 600 baht (S$23.60) for 2 plates of fried rice, a bowl of tomyam soup, a plate of mango salad and two drinks. Enjoyed the fried rice and mango salad, tomyam soup was ok but not the best. Staff was welcoming though, and can speak Malay! (I first encountered a Malay-speaking Thai in Phuket in 2009 so this wasn't surprising)

Another place where we bought food (a few times) was this long row of street stalls opposite the tailor shop we went to (Andy the Tailor, which I will blog about in another entry).

We had the classic nutella banana pancakes, but the ones we really came back for were the meat on sticks - my favourite is the stick of beef meatballs doused in thai chilli sauce! Now that I think about it, maybe I should host a Thai street food themed makan party eh?! IDEA EH?! 

We also had lunch at one of the street stalls selling dishes, noodles and rice sets, I can't remember the name but there was a halal sign and about four Thai makciks in hijab fussing over stoves. Food looked good and there were two empty seats left so we plopped ourselves down for an authentic Thai street food experience.

Saliheen had fried rice whereas I had white rice with coconut milk seafood soup, which was yummers! Also shared a plate of mango salad (this became our staple dish at every meal hehe). Only paid 200 baht (S$7.80) for the whole meal, which is dirt cheap and 1/3 of the price we paid at Rakan (which, to be fair, is a restaurant albeit an old-fashioned one). Thank you God for giving me this burning love and heavy-duty stomach built for cheap and good street food!!!!!

Later that day, we had dinner with my family! We wanted to try May & Zin, which comes highly recommended on TripAdvisor, and only a minute's walk away from our accommodation at Holiday Inn Resort. Unfortunately, the stall was closed when we arrived! Tak tau kenapa, there was no explanation sign, and this was on a weekend night seh.

So we settled for dinner from another stall which is a unit away, Arbadi Restaurant.

Food was okay la, nothing special, and we found out the next day why May & Zin is more popular than them haha. Total cost was super cheap, though! Can't remember the exact price but I think we paid around 1000 ke 1200 baht (S$40++) for 2 plates of steamed fish, 1 plate of grilled squid, 1 plate of vegetables with prawns, 1 plate of mango salad, 1 plate of chicken, 6 plates of white rice and 6 drinks. Kalau kat Singapore tak dapat ah harga gitu. 

Short hair sisters sharing rolled ice cream misrepresented as fried ice cream after dinner haha.

May & Zin

Saliheen and I decided to have lunch at May & Zin the next day since it is only a minute's walk away from our accommodation and we didn't feel like going anywhere farther on this day (we lazed it away with swimming and massages!)

A+++++++++ for presentation, please!!!!!!! Tasted way better than Arbadi too.

We had a plate of phad thai each and shared a plate of mango salad (told you) and a plate of soft shell crab with yellow curry. Yummeh. We weren't planning on the soft shell crab dish but I remembered online recommendations and it looked good on the plate in front of the dude sitting next to us so we added that in at the last minute. Service was good too! I really wouldn't have minded eating here everyday. hari hari dapat makanan lawa and berbunga. Selera, girl.

It's Halal, No Question About It

Article by Abdar Rahman Koya

Written on May 28, 2014

Source: The Malaysian Insider

"I had my usual tiff with my wife the other day and this time, it was not about who left the kid’s nappy on the bathroom floor. The subject is philosophical yet it had to do with the tummy.

We were invited by a non-Muslim friend to a birthday party. I always look forward to parties, because we will have plenty of hands to look after the twins, so that we can finally eat in peace. We were probably the only Muslim family. Yet, it was kind of her to assure us that the food catered on that day was halal.

That verbal assurance is good enough for me, but not my wife and understandably so, since this friend of ours does not have many Muslim friends.

Having been told who the caterer was, she called them to get reassurance that the food was halal and queried whether wine was used for the steak.

I told her that what she had done violates a basic principle of halal and haram (the lawful and the prohibited) in Islamic jurisprudence, and that is not to investigate when something is already known and accepted as halal.

By doing so, we risk creating doubts about the food we eat. And doubts are one of the main enemies in Islamic jurisprudence, the source of many evils and anti-social behaviour among Muslims.

One of the principles of halal and haram is that one should not pry into the origins of something which has been commonly accepted as halal. The same principle applies to many other things. When a host shows us the qiblah (the direction Muslims turn to during prayer) in his house, we do not click the compass app on our smartphone just to make sure.

Similarly, it is taken for granted that everybody performing the pilgrimage in Mecca and Medina is Muslim, or that a woman praying in the mosque is not menstruating.

It is on this same principle that I am not that excited when the halalness of a certain food or product is disproved through DNA tests. It opens up a Pandora’s box, in that doubts will emerge for all the food being mass produced and sold in the shops.

Although official halal watchdogs like Jakim have a duty to ensure a product is halal, since it is they who bear the responsibility as suggested by the phrase “ditanggung halal”, using DNA technology makes a mockery of the principles of halal and haram, as well as Islam’s claim as a religion choosing ease over hardship.

It is just a reflection of the quaint Islamicity practised in the country. The Muslim public in Malaysia are easily worked up over issues such as this, thanks again, as I have always stated in the past, to the way Islam is taught in this country.

If such an obsession with the halalness of the food was shown in political and economic principles, well-meaning Muslims in this country would not have to contend with so much ridicule because of the doings of the Muslim leaders and the salaried defenders of faith.

Already, since the discovery of pork DNA in two Cadbury chocolate products, we suddenly hear hitherto-muted Muslim voices coming to the fore. One wonders where these Muslim voices were when unIslamic racist DNA was bared for all to see through the loud mouths of Isma and Perkasa, parading loudly their ignorance in the name of Islam.

One group wants to initiate a class-action suit against Cadbury, while another calls for a boycott of all Cadbury products. If only the same zeal was shown by Muslims against tobacco companies, billions of ringgit from Muslim households would be saved, not to mention the saving of billions of ringgit in public money to fight cancer and other diseases connected to smoking.

Similarly, toilets in mosques and other institutions operating under the Islamic banner would be a far cry from their present filthy non-halal state, if only these groups were able to see halalness beyond pork in food.

It is thus comical when not long ago, the restaurant at Ikea, the Swedish furniture warehouse in Bandar Utama, had to undertake a major public relation exercise by carrying out a “purification session” of their cutlery, after claims that the meatballs they served might not be halal.

The fact is that such an act is not something instructed by the Quran or the Hadith. A Muslim can eat from any plate, even it was used to serve pork. Imam Nawawi, the 12th-century Islamic scholar whose writings form a major part of the Shafii school of thought, which is followed by Muslims in this country, said a simple wash suffices, and there is no need to do the silly act of purifying the plate seven times, as many have been led to believe.

In Islam, being doubtful is considered a disease, which is why the Quran, in a short chapter frequently used in prayers, teaches a Muslim to pray that he or she is protected from being doubtful about things.

Doubtfulness leads one away from moderation. It has led many Muslims to overdo things, thinking that their Islamicity is at stake. It is why some Muslim women cover their faces and without remorse spend big amounts of money on thick garb, when the dressing requirement in Islam is supposed to be about modesty.

It is also why many Muslims in Malaysia spend so much time performing the ablution, that act of washing one’s face, hands and feet before the prayer, forgetting that the act is not meant to physically cleanse one’s body, but just a symbolic gesture to imitate the Prophet’s practice, and which requires a little amount of water, or no water at all!

Mr Doubt is also behind the Malaysian-Muslim obsession with halal food, which for some reason has come to be all about shunning pork, and little else. It can even be used as a convenient weapon to play with the Muslim sentiments.

It has been done before, when a Muslim consumer group not long ago spread false messages about lard being used in High-5 breads, or when it endorsed an Arabic sounding toothpaste brand and tried to create doubts about other toothpaste brands through patronising holy verse-quoting radio advertisements.

With widespread ignorance, all it takes is to cry “pig” to create panic among the unquestioning Muslim consumers, who are not well educated about the philosophy of Islam’s dietary laws.

The Quran more than once tells us that God has subjected to mankind “whatever is in the heavens and what is on earth”. The prohibited in Islam is prohibitive in number and has been explicitly stated. The rest is lawful, because the general principle is that all things are permissible.

Yet, our Islamic authorities seem to be working based on the premise that all things are prohibited unless it is explicitly stated to be halal. And so we see products with halal logos on their labels, when the Quranic way would require that only non-halal products are identified.

There will be no end once we start classifying things as halal. What guarantee is there that the water we drink, from pipes which span hundreds of kilometres before they reach our homes, is halal? God forbid that a DNA test finds pork in our water!

Meanwhile, at the birthday party at the friend’s house, I and my wife left all our doubts and acted like any good hungry Muslim should: filling up our stomachs to our heart’s content and being thankful to God for His blessings!"

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I share the exact same sentiment as this writer and it pains me everytime I see self-appointed haram police go overboard with their accusations on social platforms like Facebook. Kenapa orang kita cepat melatah? Kalau was was then jangan makan lah.