Halal food by default !? (in Dubai)

You can.

All meat produced in or imported to the UAE must be Halal (unless its clearly marked as Haram).
Any restaurant that produces non-Halal meat options must by law use a separate kitchen to avoid contamination.

Even McDonalds clearly states that their burgers are Halal. I'm just not convinced that they're actually meat !

strictly speaking restuarants which serve alcohol do not have halal food
you have to be a real purist for this - but there are those who are, OP is this OK for you?

another purist requirement is that muslims only handle the food

then there is the shia/sunni shellfish debate

also halal does not mean hygenic

sorry OP, just trying to enlighten (and drag this thread out)

Most people I have asked say that as long as they believe (with valid reason, ie govt certification) that their meat is Halal, then essentially it is, but I did meet one very very conservative guy who thought that if he ate non-Halal meat, even if he genuinely didnt know it was non-Halal, it would be a sin serious enough to send him to hell.

He also believed absolutely that Halal certified meat that came from a non-muslim country (ie had been handled by non-muslims) would not meet his Halal requirements. As a result, he will eat nothing that he cannot verify - KFC is OK, because their chickens come from Al Ain and were therefore killed by and under the supervision of Muslims, but McDonalds is out because the beef is from Argentina or Brazil.

However, I know that he (at least in the UAE) is one of a very small minority. He seems to be one of the most sensitive, understanding and genuinely good people I have ever met, and I have tremendous respect for the effort he puts into living his life in the best way he can, but still find it infuriating that he considers that touching my hand would make him unclean. Makes me want to Tango him.
Hows that for going off-topic....

ah, i'll leave it to vicky to give the fruedian intrepretation of your relationship with him - wow! (thinking about tangoing with a long beard makes me want to turn 'amish' or something - i like my electricity, thank you very much)
but was your father strict with you, gengis?
there's potential in this thread.....a can of worms you opened i'll say

i knew a kuwaiti student who took canned tuna from kuwait to britian - even though the tuna was canned in thailand (under the auspices of a kuwaiti owned conglomerate...)

there must be hadiths about accepting food of unknown origin if hungery - just say 'bismallah' and tuck in

Ooops - should have been a bit clearer there - I want to Tango him, NOT tango with him. There was a series of adverts for a fizzy drink called Tango in the UK - it involved a bright orange fat bloke dressed only in a big nappy runnning up to complete strangers and rubbing his enormous orange marigold glove-like hands all over their face. The catch line was "You've been Tangoed !!"

But I'm fascinated by how quickly a thread can turn from Halal foods to the Freudian damage caused by my potentially disfunctional relationship with my dad, as proved by my desire to ballroom dance with people who consider me diiirteee. We should maybe migrate this thread to Your Choice....?

I was too busy in the UK having babies and in the kitchen - and being poor students who never paid TV tax, I have no idea about television adverts in the UK
but I saw Marlon Brando in The Last Tango in Paris....

I've deleted this because it wasnt appropriate to the context of the original questions.
Apologies to the OP.

Edited by: genghis_caterpillar

However, your mention of the canned tuna has raised a huge question in my mind.

I routinely see local (Emirati and Omani) fishermen working, and I have never noticed that they kill the fish in a way that is visibly Halal, or different to the way I would expect to see it done by a non muslim. I hadnt ever thought about it before, but would love to know from anyone who knows these things what the correct instructions would be for the Halal way to kill a fish, especially when a large catch (say 100 or so) of small fish is landed in a net.

All fish in the sea are halal and therefore OK.
No need for halal slaughtering etc.

Surprised you didn't know that . . .

I'm not convinced all fast food is halal, however one can eat
whatever if there is no alternative. Best way is to stick with
local restaurants, that way you can be 99.9% certain its halal.