I also see some pipelining there :)

>> (I love the Recipe Card notation, check it out: link)

man..this is awesome lol.. it calls for parallel processing, huh?

does anyone has any idea why it's called "om Ali" ?

I like the fact that it is for Engineers. Any Egyptian Engineer willing to provide recipes on cooking for Egyptian Engineers ;) ? That would definitely be a good recipre to eat.

How about Cooking for Engineers? :) www.cookingforengineers.com

(I love the Recipe Card notation, check it out: www.cookingforengineers.com)

I do not belive that this book would not be available over the Internet :(

Speaking of wara 3enab, this is definitely off limits. I know of someone whose relative brought him wara 3enab from Masr and for his good luck it was destroyed by customs -:-

wara 3enab -:- of course, where can I get it now ? I probably have to visit NY to find a good Egyptian restaurant that makes wara 3enab. Why does the Egyptian wara 3enab taste much better than its shami equivalent ? any ideas ?

Konafa, atayef, and om 3ali... All good. Speaking of these desserts, anyone here expet in doing these desserts ? these can be sent via mail with no problem :)

I LIKEEE Om 3ali :)...a lot..

Why isn't the Arabic letter thaal the same as TH? I heard some people say that before, but I think they're exactly the same. You say "thaalika" as in "that." (accidentally they have similar meanings.)

There might be a subtle difference, but that way we won't be able to represent the letter "Raa'" with an R. Notice the difference. Some native English speakers can't roll the R as Arabic speakers do; and vice versa.

Hmm.. why is there Fatta and Lahma in the title of this thread again? :)

Hzma, thank you for this information.

Hany, Zabihah or thabihah ? It is somewhere in between. I do not think you can represent "?" Al-zthal in English. Your comments in Indian/Chinese makes sense too.

Ahmed, yes, exactly, the assumption is a Christian source. The assumption also is more probability of them slaughtering/killing their own animals or using other buddhist Indian or athiest Chinese businesses. So I prefer to avoid them.

hmm and why did I say zabiha? It's thabiha!

Hany,

My understanding is that Chinese/Indian in the U.S would fall under the same category as other restaurants, since the slaughter is performed by the same people - the assumption christians, unless of course they slaughter their own meat. If you are in China and India or course that is different. I think we should also consider that the way this meat is slaughtered could lead to it being 'maita'

This is a complicated issue and there are many opinions about it (almost as complicated as deciding when to start Ramadan!) :) It's important that we realize that others could be comfortable with different opinions than ours. And when there are opposing but supported arguments, we should not deny others the right to follow them, or attack them if they do. I think Hoda summarized them into 3 categories, but note that the Halal issue surpasses meat into many other products, especially cheese.

"What is the basis for the first opinion ?"
Ahmed, the first opinion is based on the fact that some people say the way Jews and Christians prepare their food now is not the same way they used to do it before, which is what (they say) the verses meant. And as you might expect there's a debate on how to interpret the relevant verses that goes deep into linguistics.

"can we just eat any meat or we should just eat halal meat?"
Mohamed, of course you should only eat Halal (as opposed to haram) meat :) JK I know that's not your question. But as you can see from other posts below, zabiha and halal are not the same thing.

What do I do? When I buy raw meat, I buy zabiha only, since it's available where I live and there's no excuse not to buy it. When I eat out, I do eat non-zabiha as I consider the owners, cook, etc. "ahl kitab." Except at non-Muslim Chinese/Indian restaurants (yes, there are Muslim Chinese stores.) I would like to do less of this, but then there are almost no alternatives where I am. Of course I could only eat seafood and veggies. And also some could argue that these are all franchises and many are athiests, etc. Another argument is that these are businesses and most of this changes since the verses meant the food that ahl el kitab offer you at their homes. It IS a complicated issue.

So, my advice is to read, listen, and discuss it as much as YOU are concerned, Then pick one argument that you feel is the most convincing (or just convincing enough,) not necessarily the easiest, and follow it.

Jazaki Allahu khayran masreya82 for the nasee7a which is so true, insha'Allah I'll try to cut down on eating the leftover bashamel sauce from the pan (a crying emoticon)

:)

p.s.: Please continue the halal food/zabiha discussion as I have heard all of those different opinions myself...

Hzma, what I mentioned falls under "ta3amu ahlul kitabi hilun lakum" . What is the basis for the first opinion ? The third opinion is obviuosly invalid, if the meet is not zabiha, saying bismillah on it would not turn it to zabihah.

Note: I could not get the link u mentioned to work

Masreyah, lucky you -:- I love Bamyah. Fortuantely, my mother was visiting soon, so I have a lot of storage of Bamya.

Mohamed, my understanding the issue with meat is that it is shot before it is slaughtered, thus there is a percentage whatever low that it could be 'mayta'. Thus, it is a delicate issue. I personally only look for Halal meet. Alhamdulillah, where I live now, there is abundance of it. As for chicken, my understanding is the technique that is used does not kill it before it is slaughtered, and thus it would be valid zabiha of ahl el ketab. Wallahu a3lam.

Speaking of la7ma and fatta, i want to ask about what people normally do here in the US for eating meat. I found many egyptians eat any meat (except pork), while others eat only halal certified meat. Does anybody know the different opinions about this issue, can we just eat any meat or we should just eat halal meat?