Vietnam caters to Muslim taste
Forget gourmet spring rolls, or chicken cordon bleu - the plat du jour at Vietnamese restaurants this December will most likely be nasi goreng or beef rendang, not typical Vietnamese fare.
As the 22nd South East Asian Games approach, local chefs have found themselves busy cooking up an array of exotic dishes.
Vietnamese restaurateurs have vowed to open their menus to the dishes of neighbouring countries, in order to make tourist and athletes welcome at the games, which begin in Vietnam on 5 December.
Hot chilli pepper and coconut milk have been snatched up by kitchens across the country like never before.
Nguyen Van Diep has been a chef for 15 years. For the last two years, he has been the head chef at the three-star Grand Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.
He recently introduced specialities from other countries in honour of the South East Asian Games.
"We try to have dishes from all the participating countries in the South East Asian Games. Laos laab, Malaysian fish curry, Indonesian oxtail soup.... you name it," he said.
Halal meat
According to Diep, the hardest part is not following the recipes, but finding the necessary ingredients. Spices and condiments have to be imported from overseas, as well as a large amount of meat.
His hotel has reserved a separate section of the kitchen to prepare Muslim food, as the majority of its customers during the games in December will be guests from Muslim countries.
"We have asked our meat supplier to present a Halal certificate for every batch," he said.
"I have to explain to my staff that 'no pork' is not good enough. It has to be meat butchered in a specific way. Most of them have never heard the word 'Halal' before."
With hundreds of thousands of tourists and athletes coming from Muslim nations, the local suppliers are facing a sudden surge in demands for Halal food.
Vietnam has a relatively small Muslim community, mainly in the south.
Their few slaughterhouses are struggling with orders from hotels and restaurants.
But Imam Ali bin Hamad, from the Muslim Liaison Council in Ho Chi Minh City, remained optimistic that they would cope.
"We at the Liaison Council have been asked by the SEA Games organising board to give a hand. We are helping them open more slaughterhouses to source more meat. There won't be any shortage," he said.
High cost
Yet restaurant owners are not totally happy.
The price of Halal meat has always been higher than ordinary meat sold at the markets - sometimes by two or three US dollars per kilogramme.
Imported meat costs 10 times more. And in the run up to the SEA Games, the prices are bound to rise.
One marketing manager at a Hanoi hotel said the demands of some customers were becoming ridiculous, with one wanting Halal meat supplied by one specific company in Malaysia.
"This is absurd! The meat is nearly 50 dollars a kilo. How can smaller hotels survive?" he said.
Other hotels have been cautious not to overstock Halal produce. The SEA Games last only a short time, and they do not believe there is a demand for the leftovers.
But for Chef Diep at the Grand Hotel there is a solution.
He is planning to introduce Vietnamese recipes using Halal meat. Such Vietnamese national favourites like "cha gio", or spring rolls, will no longer be made with pork, but juicy Halal mince.
By Nga Pham - BBC Vietnamese Service - November 25, 2003.
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