Food connoisseurs and local festival-goers are bracing themselves for a treasure trove of food, entertainment and cultural goods that will be available at California’s First Halal Food and Eid Festival, coming to Alameda County Saturday.
About 18 different restaurants, food trucks, vendors, suppliers and culinary business from all over the Northern California region will be showcasing their products for the pleasure of the festivalgoers’ taste buds from noon until 7 p.m. in the main parking lot of NewPark Mall at 2086 Newpark Mall Road in Newark.
With an estimated 300,000 Muslims living in the San Francisco Bay Area, the festival is meant to showcase what Muslim and halal vendors have to offer the community. “Halal” is Arabic for “permissible,” and refers to religious dietary guidelines similar to kosher food for Jews. Pork and alcohol are prohibited.
Islamic Meat and Poultry, a sponsor of the event, will be cooking samples of their free-range, anti-biotic free chicken into “our version of chicken fajitas” for festival-goers, according to its director Walid Mesallem.
In addition, “halal” meat refers to the proper slaughter and blessing of the animal.
“It is blessed in the name of G0od, and is slaughtered by a knife and bled out,” said Mesallem, who will be coming from Stockton for the festival. “The animal needs to be healthy. It should be a presentation animal that is healthy and young and all natural.”
Besides food, the highlight for many attendees will be the 30 vendors expected to sell clothing, jewelry, books, toys and artwork from around the world in the bazaar.
The festival will also feature a large super slide, air jump, small carnival rides and family entertainment in the form of an Indonesian women’s choir, an American-Moroccan fusion jazz group, a skateboarding demonstration by boarding professional Jordan Richter, a chess tournament and a live cooking demonstration by Jimmy Sujanto of Berkeley’s Padi.
Sujanto whose restaurant serves home-style Indonesian food will offer a food demonstration of his most popular dish, sate ayam, also known as chicken satay. The food vendor offers a wide array of halal offerings on the menu, which organizers say are a reflection of the diversity of the community itself.
In addition, brisket soft tacos, southern fried chicken, chocolate dipped-bananas, organic cupcakes, bean and carrot pies, smoked barbeque, falafels, chicken tikka masala, peperoni pizza and Caribbean grill are just some of the items on the menu for Saturday.
People are coming from as far as Stockton, Fresno and Manteca for the festival, event director Irfan Rydhan said.
A self-proclaimed “foodie,” Rydhan has had the idea of having a halal food festival in California since learning about one in New Jersey two years ago.
He and fellow organizers scheduled it for the week after Eid when Muslims all over the world celebrate the end of the holy fasting month Ramadan because everyone is ready to get back into their routine of eating again.
“It’s a good way to celebrate Eid and have a lot of food options,” he said.
The two main goals of the festival are to promote halal food options to Muslims, people of faith and the greater community that there are lots of diverse options for eating halal, and to promote Muslim-owned businesses and non-profits that serve the community in the area, Rydhan said.
As part of this, festival-goers are encouraged to bring a can donation (vegetarian or seafood), for the food drive that will be ongoing during the festival with a local food distribution charity, Rahima Foundation, to “continue the spirit of Ramadan,” Rydhan said. “If you bring a can of food, then you will be entered into a raffle, and there will be several raffles throughout the day, one of which is for free food tokens.”
Festival-goers can purchase “halal fest tickets,” with a face value of $1 and $5 that can be used for any of the food vendors or rides online at halalfest.com or at the door.
The bazaar will be cash only, Rydhan said.
The festival has generated a lot of buzz online with more than 1,400 people liking the Facebook event page, and people seem to have no problem driving to sample the festival wares.
Self-proclaimed foodie and Evergreen resident Tanya Agha said she is a food enthusiast who is not overly concerned with complex techniques or ingredients.
“I love food that is simple, fresh and tastes amazing,” Agha said. “This is the perfect opportunity to eat, meet family, friends and the whole community. In the past year, I’ve increasingly went to Moveable Feast events in San Jose but there I am limited in my food options. With Halal Fest, I have the opportunity to try all foods of varying cuisines.”
Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations San Francisco Bay Area, said she is not selective in food either.
“Food really makes me happy,” Billoo said.
Billoo said one of the draws of the festival, apart from the cuisine, is the opportunity to come together with the community and celebrate.
Frequently, the general community’s interaction with Muslims is what they see in the media, she said, so this provides an opportunity for Bay Area residents to get to know their Muslim neighbors over food.
“Food is the best way to bring people together,” Billoo said. “It’s difficult to hate someone you are sharing a sandwich or dessert with.”
Even though this is the first time a festival like this is making an appearance in the Bay Area, Agha said she expects it will still draw a huge crowd.
“Personally, I’ve invited non-Muslim friends as well, so I really see this as being a huge block party for the entire Bay Area to come and enjoy some good food,” she said.
For more information about the festival, visit halalfest.com or like the page at facebook.com/HalalFest.