5 things you need to know while buying Halal food Victoria, Australia

So there's quite a few of you asking me where did we went for our makan in Australia. And because our Airbnb is equipped with pots, pans and utensils, we mostly do our cooking in our kitchen.

But basically you need to know these few things that you will be experiencing in while looking for food.

As a person who came from Singapore, we are in luxury of halal food. Most multi-million food chains are halal certified such as McDonalds, KFC, Long John Silver, Swensens and may more with this cute logo that we have  and some certificate that they will display in their stalls or buffet spread like this  which state their expiry date and to which outlet and signed by our mufti. Each outlet meaning every McDonalds in Singapore need to have their own certificate for their own outlet.

We can also patron halal food from our friendly makcik, indian muslims (mamak) or chinese muslims stalls which we know that they are Muslims and prepare and cooked by Muslim with halal ingredients.

1. It was a total different story in Australia. They do not have those halal logos in each food stall even they are selling halal meat. Why? They still serve beer, wine or non-halal menu too. They have different policy for halal stalls and supplies halal meat. When I did my extensive research, most country with minority Muslims are doing this because the food stalls still wants to sell pork, ham, bacon, champagne, wine and also halal meat. So they will display the halal certification that they got from the poultry and display it for Muslim consumers. The halal council allows them to bring halal meat into their stall.
2. Here are the different logos in Australia. Because they have so many areas and different people govern the Islamic Council, so yeah. Not like MUIS. MUIS controls everything under their belt whereas these HCA or Muslim bodies or even mosques will govern theirs in their own region.  

http://www.halal-australia.com.au/recognition-affiliation/

1. Just make sure there's no cross contamination between halal meat especially with the utensils. Some stalls would practice this as they are non-Muslim owner of the stalls who do not understand the halal-ness of the food not only on the meat and at times only certain meat like only chicken is halal or beef. Many cases where the halal blogger sphere had to strike off the food outlet because of this.
2. But if you don't was-was, just eat! Like Nandos and many places of same business idea. Just make sure they don't sell non-halal food and prepare halal-ly. I mean, we are travelling and getting halal food is not easy unless you wanna go vegetarian :)
3. Or you can opt for Muslim owner restaurants. There are tons from Middle East, Indians and Malay food around Melbourne CBD area. You can easily you can go Zabiha.com as it is a global website contains halal restaurant and halal poultry. I just found a great website with lists of  halal restaurants which serves Halal meat only, purely Halal store and Muslim owned stores https://thegrazingpanda.wordpress.com/halal-restaurants/ I am not sure how updated the lists are but it is a good start for us.

http://www.halalsquare.com.au/melbourne/profile/burger-edge-melbourne-central.aspx this website too is very good where they mentioned on the legality of the meat cam from and whether is halal 100%

More websites like these are very helpful to find your way around when the stomach is grumbling.

• https://halalauthority.org/

• http://www.visitmelbourne.com/Regions/Melbourne/Food-and-wine/Restaurants/Halal-restaurants 

• http://www.australia.com/en-sg/things-to-do/food-and-wine/the-best-halal-restaurants-in-australia.html 

Ok so that's that. What did we have during our trip?

Day 1: Diwan Grill at Epping North



The food was great and the portion was big. We were freezing in the cold but having hot food and drink just recovered us. Worth the money. We even shared our portions. hahah


Day 2: We had our lunch at HIYC Cafe. The place is one stop for everything for muslims there. So cool! We had so many different food and dishes. We didn't even share because we were too hungry! Haha. As usual, we ordered steak and fish & chips. and celebrating my baby brother's birthday, we ordered cakes and ice creams yang sgt2 sedap masyaAllah.





Day 3: We jalan2 sampai dah penat until we decided to eat Nandos instead coz its halal. Ye, I know like crap kan kat SG pun ade Nandos. Apparently my brother said Kedai Satay is halal but when we reached there, the servers looked Chinese and the serve alcohol too. Dah duduk ni, but we just bangun balik and blah. Imagine 9 of us doing that, malu sey. We were too lapar to get the food after so much walking and can't find the places like Zamzam which is near the Melbourne Central.

Day 4: We went to Puffing Billy and Cockatoo feeding at Belgrave and had our delicious Singaporean Food at Miah Sambalicious at Clayton. True blue Singaporean promotes Malay studies in Monash University and sedap food.

  

Nasi Lemak Rendang

Nasi Lemak Chicken Wing

Mee Soto with Bagedil

Day 5: Great Ocean Road Trip. We had our early lunch at George Food Court. Details from my previous post. After took gazillion pictures and had had to run around avoiding the rain, we had our dinner at Tasty Gate at Werribee. Malaysian Chinese cuisine. Super sedap and the portion is super big for all the 8 of us.

     
  

Day 6: Philip Island, Koala Reservation and Penguin Observation

That day, we only had lunch in our package because the penguin show is during maghrib time. And by the time we are out of the island, most shops were closed. Being an Asian parents, my mom and aunt prepared maggie mee and some sandwiches just to make sure we are not hungry. We had our lunch at an Afghani restaurant in Dandenong area called Aghan Masala. The speak little English and they said they were sad about what happen to Muslims in Rohingya. I think he can relate on how they flew from Afghanistan, to be away from the war there. He and many Afghani seek refuge I think in 1970s way before this current war. I felt my heart just need to help them and bought their baklavas, basbousa, filo and borek. Here is his restaurant:

 

Delicious! Superb! And their butter chicken was totally different from the once I always had at Al-Azhar Restaurant.

Day 7: Our last day, we do not have any meals under our tour. We had our take out lunch from the same street as Nandos on day 2 because the boys were at the masjid for Jumaah. My dad wanted to experience that (but in all of our hearts, we wanted more time in Victoria Market. haiz)

Burger Edge

 

And that's it! If you wanted to know more about our tour guide package, we contacted Melbourne Exposure whom from Singapore, just migrated about 3-4 years and had the idea to open this business. You can cater you tour according to your needs. They will tailor-made to your desire (halal food or not, tour to the places you want to go within Victoria). Our driver's name is Daniel (or Dan for short) and he is from Melbourne Exposure. He is the most chillex and don't complain/ show tiredness/ talk too much kinda driver. Kudos for the new business journey!