Hallal Pepperoni?

I thought this was a hallal pizzeria, what’s with the pepperoni?” I asked the Mexican-American pizza maker.

“It’s hallal pepperoni–it’s made out of beef,” he replied.

Crespo’s Pizza is located near Beltway 8 in West Houston at 10232 Westheimer (turn on Seagler). The Bosnians who hang out at Pita + a little farther down Westheimer rave about this pizzeria. The organic whole wheat crust has a pleasant chewy consistency–it’s nothing special compared to a coal oven pie. The big appeal is that Crespo’s pizzas are hallal. As you may have noticed, Bosnian food doesn’t include any pork. The country was part of the Turkish Empire for a few hundred years and the Muslim hallal tradition is still part of the culinary culture.

My kids like Crespo’s pizza and at $13.50 for a large, I like the price. So we will probably go back–even though we are swine-loving people.

Needless to say Crespo’s is also popular with Houston’s huge Muslim Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern Arab communities. And while it isn’t exactly Kosher, many of my Jewish friends would probably say, “close enough.”

1 thought on “Hallal Pepperoni?

  1. jim

    You raise an interesting question I’ve wondered about – what (aside from one being from one branch of Abraham’s family and one from another) separates kosher from hallal? I know there is a lot of overlap – no pork, yadda yadda, and a lot of my Muslim friends regard kosher (especially bagels) as “close enough” to hallal. However, the kosher tradition has that whole thing about meat vs. dairy to the point where a Jewish Community Center an aunt of mine worked at had separate “meat” and “milk” kitchens, and I’ve read in Chaim Potak novels about Orthodox Jews not being able to eat ice cream after having meat that day. So I would gather that kosher would rule out meat-topped pizzas and cheeseburgers but I’ve had variations of both at Muslim restaurants. ?????

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