Online group helps popularize halal food in Bay Area.
First Restaurant Week honors Islamic cuisine
When Abbas Mohamed moved to Dublin as a teenager, there were barely any halal restaurants he and his family would visit. There were a few in San Francisco and some more dotted around the bay, but options were limited, both in their number as well as in the range of cuisines they offered, such as the Indo Pakistani restaurant Shalimar in San Francisco or the halal Chinese restaurant Darda in Milpitas.
Fifteen years later, the situation is completely different — in part thanks to a growing community Mohamed launched in 2018 called Bay Area Halal Foodies. Congregating on Facebook, the group is introducing what could be the country’s first halal restaurant week, running in the Bay Area from Dec. 9 to 13. The event is a way for the community to share news about halal food businesses, rate restaurants and promote their own food ventures. When organizing the restaurant week, which promotes discounts and other offers at participating businesses, Mohamed counted more than 100 Bay Area halal restaurants.
“These are just the ones we know about. We’re still discovering new ones every day,” he said.
Halal restaurants serve meat that was slaughtered according to Islamic tradition. There are different opinions on how these traditions and rules are interpreted, but one of the rules in the group is to not argue about standards. The group was born out of necessity during Ramadan, Mohamed said, when many members of the Bay Area’s Muslim community
wanted to know which restaurants were open late — places where they could break the fast from sunset until sunrise, when fasting starts again.
“Who’s open at 4 in the morning? No other person in their sane mind is asking that question,” Mohamed said.
It took until 2020 and the pandemic for the group to really take off: In January, it had 1,000 members and has since grown to 8,000.
“Not only were people looking for dining options, or reasons to leave the house,” he said, “a lot of home cooks are starting their businesses and promoting it on there, too.”
In the group, supply and demand is visible in real time, and prospective chefs and food businesses can gauge interest in their ideas and their offer. A few months ago, for example, a member asked the group if there would be a demand for halal smoked brisket, and after a sizable number of people on the group showed their interest, she started her new venture called Off the Menu Halal based out of a home kitchen in Cupertino.
Mohamed also notes that four places specializing in halal birria tacos have opened in the past few months.
Innovations like that show the evolution of the Bay Area’s halal food scene: Restaurants used to opt for more traditional menus, replicating the taste of the home countries. One of the first restaurants to go a different route and fuse halal practices with American food culture is Mirchi Cafe with its two locations in Fremont and Dublin. Run by Lisa Ahmad, an Italian American chef and convert to Islam, the restaurant’s menu signifies the power of food as a melting pot of cultures.
Ahmad grew up in a family of Italian restaurant owners, and later attended San Francisco’s now closed California Culinary Academy before starting a series of food businesses. She finally settled on Mirchi Cafe in 2004, where she combines the food of her childhood with the Pakistani culture and cuisine of her husband. The menu features creations such as Punjabi burgers made with ground chicken with onions, chiles and housemade masala, fries with masala mix, and pizza with a chicken tikka topping.
“My whole idea was to take my husband’s culture and put it on that pie,” Ahmad said, “and then incorporate my family’s food.” Nobody might have imagined that the Muslim community would line up for burgers — but Ahmad proved that there was a hunger for this kind of Americanized, yet distinctly halal food.
For Ahmad, the importance of a diverse halal food offering goes even further: “I wanted to show the beauty of Pakistan. Create a place where you sat down, saw the beauty of the country, heard the music, and ate food that looks like American food but has the flavor of Pakistan here and there. Food that could be a bridge.”
Members of the group echo that sentiment.
“Being from the Bay makes one appreciate food diversity,” said Saj Garay, a member from Oakland, “and now that I’m a Muslim I appreciate having different halal cuisine options.”
For Sarosh Jafri, another member, it has become an important part of his life: “I find the group to be a great way of not only finding amazing halal eateries, but also connect with other food lovers.”
His extended family ended up joining the group — and raving about it — as well. To founder Mohamed, it has proven to really build bridges for the community: “This group has connected individuals and restaurants across many borders, including racial, class, and sect borders which can sometimes isolate communities.” Like a shared table — albeit virtually.
Bay Area Halal Restaurant Week will take place from Dec. 9 to Dec. 13. To find out which restaurants are participating, see www. halalfest. com.