Halal chicken at Heron.

The farm ones here do actually cluck around the farmyards (not saying the supermarket butcher's ones do though) The distinction (both for meat AND eggs) between caged, intensively reared, and barn chickens with free access to outdoors and natural light is identified on packaging here.We like goose at Xmas but here the local geese strangely, tend to only be available in August for the Festas. You can order them at other times but they are always frozen and come from Germany.
We used to see Geese, Ducks and chickens at our local garden centre wandering round a compound for months so a few years agoI asked him if they were for sale and he said not really (no idea what he does with them otherwise) but he did prepare one for us which we collected on Xmas eve and it was excellent. I think he hated having to pluck and prep it so it was the only time he ever did it for us. The next year he told us they were "too old and tough"(at least that was his excuse).
In UK geese are traditionally bred for Xmas and killed when approximately 7 months old when at their peak.

As an aside, I am a little concerned that you say your chicken smells strong and could be seen by some as"off" I suppose it could be a rooster as these tend to be a bit larger than normal broiler chickens and can be a bit 'gamey'. I have always been led to believe fresh chickens (Broiler) regardless of breed, should NEVER really have any odour (rather like fresh fish should never smell fishy.) I would be very suspicious if it was. Also the only time the chicken meat should be tough is when they are boiling fowl i.e. those were usually egg layers old and have stopped laying that end up in casseroles (the origins of the 'rubber chicken' jokes) and they are tough as old boots if you try to roast them. I have never had tough chicken. Capons (roosters castrated before maturity) are much larger less gamey and should have (but not always) been reared on special diets making them tastier than a broiler chicken but have a bit more flavour. Oddly, pheasant is available here for most of the year but unlike the UK it is not hung and not gamey (i.e. relatively bland and tasteless) although some game butchers do favour eating game as fresh as possible as soon as rigor mortis dissipates, we prefer them a bit stronger tasting.

P.S. Free range here for eggs AND chicken means 2 - 3 times the price of 'standard' eggs/chicken. Personally we prefer have them/it less often and have better quality. Free Range eggs for example are around 1.90-2.00 euro for half a dozen.

 

If we did that at the moment we would be breaking the law. However, watch this space

 

based on what I’ve seen in here he doesn’t care the slightest about animal welfare or how it was killed, he for some unknown strange reason does care about mooslim chickens, especially the ones who are killed using muslamic ray guns*



* I made that last bit up.

 

Used to love listening to Adrian Sherwood and On U Sound, haven’t in ages so I’m away to YouTube for an hour!

 

It isn't just the Indian takeaways that serve halal chicken as the norm. Cafes, sandwich shops, takeaways, bakeries (always gets me that they claim to be bakeries but don't bake anything from scratch), play centres, schools, pretty much all of them sell halal chicken on their sandwiches, in their nuggets or fillets, with their chips etc.

 

Definitely heard the heron mutter something Islamic under his breath.

 

My point exactly, then again, how much do you think the Poles care what they put on labels?
When we’re completely out of the EU I think we can all get ready re: food and labelling.

 

I once had a chicken burger from a halal chicken shop in Nottingham. It was disgusting. In fact, I'd go as far as saying it was fowl.

Al get mi coit.

1st part of that story is true though.

 

Watch this if you want to know the truth about industrial animal agriculture in the UK.

https://www.landofhopeandglory.org/

https://www.landofhopeandglory.org/facts

The vast majority of meat in the UK is produced on an industrial scale in this way.

And it's not just in the UK. Other highly developed nations, such as Australia are even worse. Again, watch this if you want to know the truth.

https://www.dominionmovement.com/watch

Along with the terminal cost to the environment, this barbaric cruelty is why I gave up consuming animal products, once I made the decision to face up to it.

Make up your own minds.

 

I complained in a Chinese that my chicken was rubbery.
The waiter said “Oh, thanks very much “

 

But if you're suggesting that other EU members don't accurately label their foods properly anyway - "how much do you think the Poles care what they put on labels?" what difference would it make anyway ?? Are you suggesting that the EU is less than a level playing field ?

 

It was a broiler, and the smell was absolutely gamey, not remotely off. Just in these days of sanitised mass-produced food, many people automatically think that any odour at all carried by meat must mean that it's off. As for the legs, the meat isn't tough but it's close and firm. Absolutely fine for roasting, but if ithey're poached for a couple of hours it's absolutely in a different league, plus you get an excellent stock. One of my favourite dishes is making Asian ramen soup with it. Fantastic.

 

I’m suggesting that we can get ready for shady dealings in the future. There’s already talk of changing the way chicken is described in order to disguise the fact that chicken from USA is chlorinated. I don’t hold out too much hope that the public will be protected from sharp practice.

 

My experience was that with the exception of fresh local produce in certain areas, buying good quality food is very expensive there. And the quality of the basics is often reprehensible. Finding any sort of edible bread was a big issue for us, and most vegetables in any supermarket of a lower class than Publix generally look absolutely tragic. Apart from avocados, which are permanently available, perfectly ripe and cheap. If I ever ended up living in the USA, I'd probably sustain myself on craft beer and avocados (thus funding Mexican cartels).

 

I found New York in winter particularly expensive and poor quality for fresh produce, apart from Whole Foods. Our last visit was a road trip around the Deep South, so we were shopping at a variety of places. Publix was our go-to if we couldn't find a Whole Foods. Not a bad supermarket, but still we found the meat and vegetables quite tasteless compared with what we're used to. I wasn't overly impressed with their cheese either, apart from Pepper Jack! The day when Piggly Wiggly was the only supermarket in town (hello Scottsboro, Alabama) was not a culinary delight, to say the least. Once we got into Florida, things improved immensely, with us stocking up on amazing fruit from roadside stalls. I guess a lot of it just depends on knowing where to go though. I don't buy very much fresh produce in supermarkets in St Petersburg either, but the local fruit and veg market is incredible. You wouldn't think that Russia would be fruit and veg heaven, but it's easy to forget that it stretches all the way down to the Black Sea, and borders Azerbaijan. The tomatoes from that area are easily as good as any I've eaten in Spain or Italy. The USA is similarly huge and I'm sure such fantastic stuff is available, just we didn't always find it. The beer on the other hand, was something that I had no trouble finding. It's probably just a question of priorities!

 

From what I can remember Whole Foods is verging on prohibitively expensive. Our bog standard supermarket stuff is miles ahead of American basics, and I think all our supermarkets have an organic range, so overall I think we're in a better place.

In terms of the value to quality ratio I think Costco is pretty great, although you have to buy 7,329 chicken breasts at a time.

 

As EU members since 2004, I'd image they're quite strict on this sort of thing. Nothing like a spot of casual xenophobia on a Thursday.

 

To get back on topic, are they halal?