For the Oxford dictionary, a foodie is a person "with a particular interest in food; a gourmet". Collins goes for "having an enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food". Imran Kausar fits both, but with qualifications: he won't touch alcohol, can't eat pork or pork products or byproducts, and must avoid blood, most carnivorous animals, the meat of animals not slaughtered according to certain rules, or any food contaminated with the above.
Kausar, Glasgow-born of Pakistani parents, is a halal foodie. It's a group of people now so numerous and, he believes, so poorly served that he and his friend Noman Khawaja have not only coined a new term to describe them – "Haloodies" – but organised a festival for them: London's first, and the world's largest, Halal food festival, which takes place at the capital's Excel Centre this weekend and confidently expects to draw 20,000 paying visitors.
"There's a huge market out there, waiting to be tapped," he says. A medical doctor by training who has also worked in investment banking and the pharmaceutical industry, he sees himself as typical of a new generation of young, middle-class Muslim consumers now contributing to a growing demand for high quality and varied halal food.
"Our parents came over in the 60s and basically put up with what there was," he says. "Now there are many people like me: well educated, good jobs, decent incomes ... and we want things. I want to go out with friends – with non-Muslim friends, too – and with my family of course, and be able to eat halal French, Japanese, Thai, pizza, like everyone else. Michelin-starred food, if I want, why not? Read on and comment » | Jon Henley | Wednesday, September 25, 2013
