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 Chinese Halal food possesses both Islamic and Chinese cuisine style. In China, there are ten ethnic Muslim groups: Hui, Uyghur, Khazak, Uzbek, Tadjik, Tatar, Kirgiz, Sala, Dongxiang and Bonan. The Hui people inhabit in most part of China while the other ethnic groups mostly live in northwest China’s Xinjiang province. Therefore, Chinese Halal food falls into two categories: the Hui cuisine and Xinjiang cuisine.
The history of Chinese Halal food could be traced back to the beginning of Tang Dynasty (618-907). Due to the opening of Silk Road, many Arabic merchants came to China along the Silk Road and brought their culinary culture. Later on, some of them migrated to North China, South China and Southwest China’s Yunnan province. With the formation of Hui Chinese Muslim and increasing of the Muslim Hui population, the Muslim food which combined the Islamic tradition and Chinese cuisine developed rapidly. Chinese Muslim Food became widely accepted by non-Muslims due to its unique flavor. The earliest record about Chinese Halal food was the book “The Collected Version of the Must Knows in Household” finished in Yuan Dynasty which recorded that Islamic cuisine of the Yuyan Dynasty kept Arabic flavor and most of which were mutton dishes. It was until the end of Ming and beginning of Qing Dynasty that the word Halal (Qingzhen in Chinese) was widely used in China and it was finally well accepted by the royal court of Qing Dynasty.
The earliest cooking method of Halal food was to Pao (to roast the food spreading with mud), to roast which kept the nomad’s dinning custom. Because people of different nationalities like Hui, Manchurian and Mongolians lived close to each other from generation to generation in history, the Hui people who were in the cooking profession studied and absorbed the cooking skills of other nationalities, thus enabled the Halal food cooking technique became complex and various: frying, quick-frying, braising, pan-frying and deep-frying. Chinese Halal cuisine forms its unique style which differs itself from others.
 The Halal food tastes a little salty, the sauce is strong, and the meat is fat but not greasy, tender but gets no strong smell. Due to geographical locations, Chinese Halal food is classified into different branches: Northwest China Halal food; North China Halal food and Southwest China Halal Food. The Halal food feast generally falls into five styles of feasts: the bird’s nest feast, the shark’s fin feast, the duck fruit feast, the fruit feast and the informal feast. This makes Halal food appeals to both cultured and popular tastes. Besides that, Halal snacks differ from place to place in terms of flavor and cooking materials.
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