The Halal Guys are part of I Heart Halal’s
lineup. The Halal Guys/Facebook
This weekend, Chicago’s Navy Pier will host
what’s described as America’s first festival celebrating halal. As Eater
Chicago first reported back in February, the inaugural I Heart Halal Festival
hopes to attract 20,000 attendees with a Taste of Chicago-style lineup for
halal food vendors and cooking demos. Food’s not the only focus of the event
that goes from Friday through Sunday. The festival will also host Muslim
models, makeup artists, and comedians.
The lineup includes Amanda Saab, a chef who
appeared on MasterChef in 2015. She’s credited as the first Muslim female
contestant who proudly wore her hijab on screen. Yvonne Maffei, a food writer
who’s written several books and who’s behind My Halal Kitchen will also appear.
She’s appeared at Chicago Gourmet. YouTuber Sameer Sarmast of Sameer Eats and
chef Demetrios Haralambatos of Kontos Foods, a New Jersey-based food service
company, will also appear at the halal festival.
In February, the event’s organizers talked
about how modern American Muslims have different tastes. They want halal
burgers, pizza, and more traditionally American items. Halal is the Muslim
dietary law as outlined in their holy book, the Qur’an. Common banned items
include pork ? and by association any items made with gelatin. Strict observers
would also abstain from alcohol. But not everyone is strict. Just like there
are Jews who may cheat on their Kosher ways by mixing their dairy and meat and
scarf down a cheeseburger, there are Muslims who may blur the lines when it
comes to halal.
The lineup includes suburban and Chicago
restaurants. Some, like The Halal Guys, serve a variety customers ? not just
Muslims. It doesn’t matter, that hot sauce still burns. Others, particularly
those from the suburbs, cater to much of the area’s Muslim immigrant
population, which includes swaths of South Asia and the Middle East.
Check out the full food vendor lineup for
the festival below. Click on the fest’s website for the full schedule of panels
and demonstrations.
Link->https://chicago.eater.com/2018/4/11/17224388/i-heart-halal-festival-chicago-food-lineup-navy-pier