It is 3.31 a.m. and I just woke up. With a glass of hot chocolate besides me, I am browsing through the internet. Why am I up so early? Actually I had a very big headache yesterday and I slept around 10 p.m. And now I am up. With nothing to do, I can update my blog entry.

Before I tucked in yesterday, I spent some time reading some articles in the Time magazine. In this special issue, most of the article are about food. And that interest me. Makes me feel like writing about it.

I always wanted to travel the world and try all the food they have in different countries. Just like what Anthony Bourdain do. It is quite interesting actually. Travel, seeing other people’s culture, and most of all, enjoying the foods. But I will be having a big problem doing that. That is because I am a muslim. As people know, muslims cannot eat pork or anything that is associated with pig. That’s the least problem actually. We also can’t eat anything that is not slaughtered properly according to the Islamic law. An example, we do eat chicken or meat, just it must be properly prepared, then it will be Halal. We also cannot eat what is poisonous and we can only eats herbivores. More info on Halal food.

People may think that it will be a big problem to me, as I am a Muslim, living in an european country. Where can I get such food? Well, you will be surprise how many muslims are there in my neighborhood.

Yesterday I ate a sausage with omelette and bread at lunch. Thats typically European. At dinner I ate a typical Southeast Asian meal - Beef curry with rice and egg. Which all of it I cook it myself. Yes. I do cook. And I love it so much.

It is hard to find good food nowadays. As the world is more into globalisation, there’s always a McDonald’s or KFC in every city. It is hard to find good old traditional restaurant that offers good food. And the new generation don’t know what are they missing. I remembered back in the old days, the whole family would travel hundreds of kilometers just to have a good seafood dinner. When I think about it, it is quite insane. And normally we would get hungry as the time we reached home.

But it is quite different here in Europe. There is not much McDonald’s and Starbucks here. That is because the people here think that the best food is what you can get here. There is always a good local cafe or Italian or maybe a nice bakery just around the corner. We don’t want anybody from India to make Tapas, or someone from the Middle East to cook sushi for us, do we? It won’t taste the same. For me it is always best that the food is prepared by someone from its own culture. That is why I always cook what I eat, because I always eat the cuisine from home. I am not saying I am a good cook. But one thing I can say, the European can’t cook any good ‘Rendang‘.

I am looking forward to get back to my own country this summer as my elder brother will be having his wedding. It will be a big feast. And also I am planning to search around town, looking for any good restaurant that I miss as I am here in Europe. Even though I can’t eat the McDonald’s here in Germany (because it is not Halal here but it is Halal in Malaysia), I don’t crave for it. I miss those mamak stall in my neighborhood and good old mom’s soul food.