{"id":2392,"date":"2015-02-09T11:09:45","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T16:09:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2015-02-09T11:28:09","modified_gmt":"2015-02-09T16:28:09","slug":"halal-italian-and-mexican-catering-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2015\/02\/halal-italian-and-mexican-catering-in-chicago.html","title":{"rendered":"Halal Italian and Mexican catering in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"halal<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a guest post by Whitney Gaspar<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am not Muslim. I am not any religion, really. I was baptized as a Catholic to please my grandma and raised as an atheist by my mother. I am spiritual and I believe in God. But that is not why I eat halal. I eat halal because it is logical. It simply makes sense. <\/p>\n

One of my dearest friends is a Bohra Muslim. One Monday while we were having chai at her kitchen table, she told me that her family was eating halal. I knew she didn\u2019t eat pork or drink alcohol, but now halal? What did that mean? <\/p>\n

I decided to do some research, and what I found changed my eating drastically. First, I eliminated pork from my diet altogether. I learned that pigs are scavengers by nature. This means that they will eat almost anything, including rotten food and carcasses. And their bodies are incapable of effectively removing these toxins. If I am what I eat, I definitely don\u2019t want to be a pig. <\/p>\n

Animals raised for halal meat are treated humanely. They must have room to roam freely, be given clean water to drink, and never be fed other animals or animal byproducts. <\/p>\n

The fact that resonates with me the most however, is the method of slaughter (zabiha<\/em>). The act is performed with respect and compassion for the animal and the blood is drained immediately. This is important because the blood carries toxins, germs, and bacteria. The longer it remains in the animal after slaughter, the higher the potential for the meat to cause illness. <\/p>\n

Inspired by what I learned, I started my own halal catering company in the south suburbs of Chicago. We specialize in Italian and Mexican cuisine. Our food is fresh and flavorful. I\u2019m proud of the food I serve. Not only is it delicious (seriously… you should try it!), it is 100% halal. It\u2019s feel-good fare, inside and out.<\/p>\n

Whitney Gaspar is the owner of GG’s Catering<\/a> in Chicago. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post by Whitney Gaspar. I am not Muslim. I am not any religion, really. I was baptized as a Catholic to please my grandma and raised as an atheist by my mother. I am spiritual and I believe in God. But that is not why I eat halal. I eat halal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[217,150,221,459],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamerica","tag-food","tag-guest-post","tag-halal","tag-halalaterian"],"yoast_head":"\nHalal Italian and Mexican catering in Chicago - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halal Italian and Mexican catering in Chicago - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post by Whitney Gaspar. I am not Muslim. I am not any religion, really. I was baptized as a Catholic to please my grandma and raised as an atheist by my mother. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}