How to cater halal buffet food at a children's party?

[Feedingmybaby]

It’s DDs birthday party soon and just starting to think about catering. We are holding the party in a hall and will do typical buffet food for both adults and kids.

We’ce invited the whole class, and lots of children are Muslim and will only eat halal - I’ve never catered for this dietary requirement before.

Can anyone give any suggestions? There will be some cheese and jam sandwiches for the kids, but I was also planning on doing ham. Would the products containing pork need to be kept separately to everything else if the Muslim children are to eat them? I just don’t want the parents to not eat the food if I’m to do it ‘wrong’!

Or get turkey ham.

I’ve had Muslim children at my kids’ parties and this is my advice.

Keep pork in all its forms far from the other meats, ensure there is separate utensils for serving too. (No Muslim I’ve ever catered for has minded in the slightest that we’ve also had pork as well as other things their kids can eat.)

Get some gelatine free/ halal sweets and label them clearly.

Most parents keep an eye on their own kids and know what they can and can’t have until the children are old enough to voice it themselves.

How ridiculous changing yours and every other guests dietary requirements to force religiously slaughtered meat on them.

No one follows a diet that HAS to include meat though.

What?

I’ve hosted play dates at home for up to 10 children (yes, I’m a sucker for punishment) and maybe a third of them were Muslim, a couple were vegetarian. I’d serve predominantly vegetarian food (mushroom pizza, fries, cheese and cracker platters, fruits, other beige starchy things) with meat (usually popcorn chicken, because kids) and alcohol on the far end of the dining table (the alcohol area was jokingly called the Haram Zone — the Muslim parents thought it was hilarious); all sweets were gelatine-free.

Never had any catering drama. Although one child wanted to try the ham at one of my Christmas gatherings, and his liberal Muslim parents said “go on then, you can have a tiny bit of four-legged chicken, but don’t tell great-grandma” (!)

Yes agreed, vegetarian could be provided. Not providing halal meat for everyone.

I dont think it's ridiculous at all. I asked what people's dietary requirements were, and I catered for them. At least 1,/2 of my guests at that party were Muslim. 2 were vegetarian. 1 was gluten free. The rest didn't express a preference. I fed everyone. Everyone was happy. If someone asked for none halal, I would have provided them with a meal to satisfy their request.

I do agree with you to some extent.

I asked for some advice on whether the pork/meat products were ok being on the same table as the veggie options or whether this still wouldn’t be acceptable to Muslims. And received many, many replies saying I shouldn’t be doing any meat or pork at all?! I don’t think this would be expected by anybody?!

I will be doing pork and meat as it’s what I and my family likes, and have always done. I am more than happy to ensure that all of the children I invite are catered for (hence the question), but I certainly wouldn’t be changing things so much as to not include things that I would typically do and are enjoyed.

Thank you - this is what I plan on doing.
Meat at one end, and veggie at the other.

It will be fine. There are kids who are Muslims at our parties and they just don’t eat the ham sandwiches! Never had any issues.

Cant you just do a vegetarian buffet, jt would be much easier. Ham is pure rubbish anyway

Turkey ham (find in larger supermarkets in Indian fresh food section) to make life easier. Cheese and onion rolls rather than sausage rolls. Cheese and tomato pizzas fingers

I bought halal chicken drumsticks and cooked the same for everyone. Apart from that, avoid sausage rolls or cocktail sausages, or have an alternative on offer, and the rest is all fine - crisps, crudites and dips, cakes etc.

My kids’ parties were vegetarian (we’re not vegetarian). You don’t need to mention it and nobody will notice, but it means you’ve covered the vegetarian kids, the kids who don’t eat meat or only certain kinds of meat or only meat prepared in a certain way. I usually served something like:

Sandwiches or mini rolls with cheese, jam, or Marmite (Marmite was always wildly popular!)
Pizza - margaritas (half of them freak out over toppings anyway so keep it simple)
Carrot, cucumber, and celery sticks with dip or hummus
Crisps - ready salted
Small iced cakes or biscuits (get your kids to ice Rich Tea or digestive biscuits and put sprinkles on them)
Fruit - strawberries, chopped up oranges, halved grapes. Fun sized apples and pears. Satsumas or easy peel somethings
Bowl of cleaned halved raw mushrooms (don’t knock it until you’ve tried it)
Bowl of plain pasta (again, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it). They love that stuff.

I would do the whole lot vegetarian then no-one can complain.