ABSTRACT
This ethnographic study uses foodways and the halal kebab restaurant space as a lens through which to trace the experiences of Muslim immigrant restaurateurs and customers, both Pakistani and Moroccan, in Spain. Drawing on semi-structured interviews, it investigates halal food practices and the manner in which halal consciousness informs identity-forging. The case of Spain is particular in that Muslims’ desire to observe halal dietary law conflicts with Spain’s dominant food culture, namely its reliance on and affinity for pork. This creates a religious, cultural, and gastronomic tension, which is here conceptualised as the halal/pork binary. The theoretical concept of ‘halal consciousness’ is used to understand Muslim immigrants’ dependence on the kebab industry and to explore issues confronting Pakistani restaurateurs as they grapple with divergent Muslim and Spanish food practices. In addition, the emergence of the European kebab industry, the demand for and supply of halal foods in Spain, and the creation of anti-halal narratives in the Spanish political sphere are discussed. The halal kebab restaurant in Spain thus offers a case study of Muslim immigrants’ lived experience and place-making in a new cultural setting where the dominant food icon—Iberian ham—is inimical to their religious and gustatory traditions.
