Halal Cuisine

Halal Cuisine

　　Halal Cuisine is located on the banks of the Yuan River in Changde City, and its halal dishes have long enjoyed a stellar reputation and widespread fame. Legend has it that during the Qing Dynasty, when Emperor Qianlong traveled to the south of the Yangtze River, he passed through Changde, visited a Hui Muslim restaurant, and tasted the halal dishes prepared by the chef. He was so impressed that he immediately took up his brush and bestowed the name “First Spring of Halal Cuisine” upon the establishment.

“Halal cuisine” refers to the beef and mutton favored by the Hui people. The cooking techniques of Changde’s halal cuisine are unique in form, aroma, color, and taste. First and foremost, the selection of ingredients is extremely strict, with main ingredients being meticulously chosen — all fresh beef, beef tongue, beef tripe, and beef tendon are personally slaughtered by an imam. The auxiliary ingredients are comprehensive, mainly including corn chips, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear fungus, and eggs. The seasonings emphasize southern flavors, featuring ginger, scallions, garlic, chili peppers, pepper, star anise, pickled vegetables, and more. The cooking methods are also diverse, including steaming, braising, pan-frying, stir-frying, stewing, simmering, crisping, sautéing, deep-frying, mixing, blanching, boiling, roasting, baking, and marinating. Although “halal cuisine” primarily uses beef and beef by-products as ingredients, the knife skills and ingredient pairings vary, and the cooking styles each have their own distinctive merits. “Silver Thread Beef Tripe” is known for its exquisitely fine knife work and perfectly executed cooking — the chef cuts the boiled beef tripe, after removing the base, into fine shreds, dices the auxiliary yulan slices into thin strips, and finely chops the fresh red chili peppers (seeded), ginger, and scallions. Then, these are stir-fried in a hot wok with clear oil until done, and served in a dish drizzled with sesame oil. The result is uniformly shredded tripe, snow-white in color, accented with red chili, green scallion, and yellow ginger threads — a colorful, aromatic, and delicious dish. In addition, there are traditional dishes such as braised beef tendon, stewed beef brain, layered beef, spicy beef tripe shreds, salt-blasted beef, green bean starch stir-fried beef shreds, stir-fried beef tripe, steamed beef with rice flour, spiced beef tongue, braised beef meatballs, and cold-shredded tendon beef. Thanks to the chefs’ careful preparation, these dishes come in a myriad of lifelike shapes; their colors are vivid and pleasing to the eye; their aromas are rich and lingering; their flavors are delicious and memorable.