| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Alcohol in Dubai restaurant dishes back on the menu |
| 2010-03-24 |
| The Dubai municipality has retracted a decision to ban restaurants from using alcohol in the preparation of dishes, The National daily reported on Tuesday. The confusion was a result of a "misunderstanding", municipality officials said, claiming that restaurateurs misinterpreted a circular sent to them. The liberal Gulf emirate had announced on Sunday it would enforce a 2003 law banning alcohol in food preparation, based on complaints from Muslim clients who were not warned that dishes in some restaurants contained alcohol. Khaled Sharif al-Awadhi, director of Dubai municipality's food control department, said food containing alcohol could be served on condition it was segregated from other food and clearly labeled, The National reported. "We have found violations where hotels are not clearly stating alcohol content in their food," it quoted him as saying. Awadhi added that alcohol should be handled like other "non-halal products" such as pork. The newspaper said chefs in Dubai, where restaurants in hotels with a license are allowed to serve alcohol, had approached the municipality asking for a review of the decision, which they said threatened their industry. The National said that a municipality circular sent to all hotels clearly stated that food in alcohol would be strictly prohibited. "Use of alcohol in preparation and cooking of food is strictly prohibited. Display and sale of food products containing alcohol as an ingredient is strictly prohibited," said the circular according to the English-language daily. Ahmed Al-Ali, the head of food inspections was quoted by the paper on Sunday that alcohol in food would not be allowed even if clearly labeled. Al-Awadhi said the circular was misunderstood by restaurateurs. "It's a misunderstanding. The memo meant to say that alcohol content in food should be clearly stated and also kept separately," he said. The municipality will meet with chefs from leading hotels later this week to communicate the regulation and clear the confusion. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 Do they label foods made with vanilla extract? I remember reading during the first Gulf War that people couldn't send, e.g., chocolate chip cookies to the soldiers based in Saudi Arabia, because of the vanilla extract. Of course, that's one teaspoon of vanilla extract (35% alcohol, for the stuff in my cabinet) amid 2.25 cups of flour, 1.5 cups of sugar, two eggs, plus trace other elements. Oh, and the chocolate chips. |
| Posted by: Angie Schultz 2010-03-24 21:31 |
| #5 I suppose the fact that it all boils off during cooking escapes them. Almost all boils off, gromky, according to the Cook's Illustrated people, who ran the experiment. It's one of those asymptotic thingies. |
| Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer 2010-03-24 12:48 |
| #4 In Israel, Sunday brunches offered by major hotels are a huge money maker, and competition is fierce. Buffet lines are organized to segregate meats, dairy, and vegetarian foods. In one such hotel, halfway through brunch, a customer saw steam drifting from underneath a meat tray in the direction of the dairy line. They calmly started screaming bloody murder, which concluded the buffet for the day. The hotel's restaurant manager had to bring in, at great cost, a team of Rabbis to determine if Kosher law had been violated. After days of debate and argument, they decided that water should be obtained from the steam of the meat line, and that if a dog would drink it, it would mean that it had been contaminated with meat. All eyes were on the manager as he put the bowl of water on the floor. The dog sniffed at it gingerly, then decided it wasn't thirsty. This satisfied the Rabbis, so they decreed that the hotel buffet was Kosher, not Tref. Only later did the restaurant manager admit to a friend that for insurance he had put a few drops of Lysol in the water bowl with the water. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-03-24 10:03 |
| #3 Do they label foods made with vanilla extract? |
| Posted by: mom 2010-03-24 09:59 |
| #2 Does this mean I can get an olive in a gin and vermouth marinade like I have for dinner now? |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2010-03-24 06:24 |
| #1 I suppose the fact that it all boils off during cooking escapes them. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-03-24 03:38 |