Halal or Not? Hashima...雪蛤 aka Snow Jelly

From a really young age, 雪蛤 (xue ha; xue ge; which I recently found out that the English term is Hashima) has been like birds nest, shark fins kind of deli for me.

I used to hear people saying that its another kind of birds nest, just not from the saliva of a bird.

It was also explained to me that it has better health and complexion benefits than birds nest.

I never thought too much of it in detail, as in where it came from till sometime 3 years ago after conversion.

Being a Muslim, whatever gets into my mouth, if I am not sure of it, I will definitely check it out.

It was one fine day while I was pregnant with my son that my mum passed a bottle of Hashima to me.

I screened through the list of ingredients... seems fine to me...until I looked at the words "雪蛤“ again, that urged me to find out more.

The word "蛤" itself refers to frogs, and toads e.g. "蛤蟆" or "癞蛤蟆想吃天鹅肉".

Which, led me to thinking... "are these from frogs? toads? OMG!"

Here are findings I got from "Mr Google":

1. It was a famous dessert ingredient made from the dried fat tissue found near the fallopian tubes of true frogs.

2. Usually from Asiatic Grass frogs (Rana chensinensis).

3. These tissues are good for health and complexion.
4. Many more details which I didn't really want to look further.

According to my knowledge, frogs and toads are not to be consumed by Muslims.
Do let me know privately via emails if you happen to know otherwise.
I do want to find out more about things as a Muslim.

So Pho

Went to So Pho last Friday to celebrate my SIL's birthday.
Didn't get to capture any photos cos my kids were with us... lol.
Too bz to capture any pix of food or even the restaurant.
However, I managed to find out some info from my bestfriend "Mr Google" :D

(image from HungryGoWhere.com)


(image from Burpple.com)
My Mother in law had this...the soup was really nice and clear. She's a beef lover, so the amount of beef and beefballs were thumbsup for her.
The chilli that came with it was "shiok" too.
Just a little incident/joke...she squeezed the whole piece of lime that came with it... n the soup turned too sour for her.
If you are not a lover of "sour", do not squeeze the lime. :D

I had the beef only noodle soup. Sorry, can't find any nice photos.
Will update a nice photo when I get the chance to.
My children loved the soup too. 3 of us were slurping away and eating the rice noodles which they had never tried before.

Halal Food I miss.... Taiwan experience

I think it was 6 , 7 years ago when I went to Taipei with my family members.
We were wondering around the streets for lunch after shopping for some camera stuff, and suddenly I saw a big sign in Taiwanese Mandarin 清真牛肉面！
In my heart I was jumping for joy!!!
And my brother said "finally! now u can eat your Halal food hor".
Till today, I still miss this beef noodles flavour, fragrance and the nice friendly people selling it.
The beef noodles was really big bowl, hot, soupy, fragrant (did I just said that already?).

This is cucumber mixed with vinegar and sugar... came before the beef noodles... simple yet appetizing makes u want to eat more!

The chilli and sauce to go with the noodles. Erm....garlic in the middle...i didn't try adding that, maybe its suppose to be made into the chilli paste, not eaten like that :D

I couldn't finish the noodles and the lady serving us packed it for us to eat at the hotel.

This is the shop, 

The ever friendly chef "Yusuf Ai"爺爺（picture taken from www.thestar.com.my). I forgot to take a picture with him when we were there...but his friendliness, I cannot forget. 

Address: 台北市忠孝東路4 段223 巷41 號

我好懷念這牛肉麵吖!!!! 
求真主再讓我吃到它吧！Ameen :D

Dip n Go

Dip 'n' Go is at Woodlands Causeway point.
They serve very crispy and delicious fried chicken and fish in very uniquely designed cup.
Its actually a drink in the cup with the chicken or fish on top.
And you can choose the many different types of sauce to go with your dish.
Very handy to munch, sip and shop together.
Definitely gotta get it again when I am in Woodlands.

Their website: http://www.dipngo.com.sg/aboutus.html

Cafe O

Had a good meal at Cafe O yesterday.

The Laksa, even though no cockles in it.... had pretty good and thick gravy. I just wished it was hotter in temperature cos it turned cold very fast in the airconditioned place.

Then there was the tissue prata which my friend ordered.

It was huge! See! it can't even fit into my picture totally! Very crispy, the drizzle of milk made it taste a little sweet and an extra fragrance. I like that. Something to enjoy with your love ones. Kind of fun to eat a tissue prata together.