Pizza in Gurdwara Langar : Acceptable ?

[West London Singh]

Still uses rennet for cheese production.

Knowing many desi food shop owners, I don't think they'd check where the rennet came from.

Absolutely Chucky. I think, as Mehtab Singh suggested, the only solution is that from now on Pizza can only be served if at least the mozzarella cheese base topping is made on the Gurdwara premises by the sangat themselves. Apparently, it can be easily done.

What we've witnessed in the many comments here is that Sikhs are sometimes extremely unaware of the most simplest of things. Perhaps they are unaware that the 'cheese' on their pizza is usually mozzarella ? I don't know. The topic seems to have veered off into a discussion about various tasty toppings. :stupidme:

I know Dominos (UK) has already confirmed to various vegan organisations that their pizzas are made with animal rennet and like you alluded, I seriously doubt our desi pizza shop owners are going out of their way to source organic vegan rennet which is twice as expensive as the animal one.

Thus.....we can safely assume that Gurdwaras up and down the country have been serving stomach lining from an animal for years now without anyone being the wiser. That's a scary thought.

In the UK however, with vegetarianism being very much mainstream, non-animal rennet is fairly widely used and available Can't say the same thing about USA and Canada though. There, if pizza from a shop is served in a Gurdwara you can be 99% sure that it contains animal rennet.

Anyway, like I said before, we can never be truly sure that the pizza brought into the Gurdwara from outside is non-animal even if the pizza shop people say it is because the ingredient will just say 'enzyme'. The only solution is that if pizza is to be served in a Gurdwara it must not only be prepared by the Gurdwara itself but the Gurdwara must make the cheese itself. Someone somewhere needs to set this as a rule.

[bluespace]

How do you make dal with no thadka..do you simply boil the dal

[Wingz23]

PIZZA

[Mehtab Singh]

How do you make dal with no thadka..do you simply boil the dal

Hanji, that is pretty much it, unless I've exposed my absolutely poor cooking skills in public :unsure2:

[TheFancyBanana]

Just had a read on Wikipedia and there are a lot of non-animal ways of getting it. One way is Isreali rennet which is kosher :\

You would think Sikh agriculturists/industrialists around the world would have recognised this and set up an industry to produce vegetarian/microbial rennet for use by the Sikh community around the world.

Dont give up on Paneer Pizza yet kids! lol.

Well, I don't know if pizza shop owners would even check to see where the rennet came from. Even the "100% vegetarian" ones.

Kosher suggests ritual killing of an animal in the Jewish way.

How do you make dal with no thadka..do you simply boil the dal

You don't add the finishing touches. This is the extra tomatoes and onions etc. If you've ever had the same daal for more than one day, it should be turkhaed the next day for it to taste nice.

BTW, is it turka or tarhka? I use the the first one.

[Wicked Warrior]

Where I've seen pizza served, it is made in the Gurdwara. No idea whether they use mozzarella or not. Always looked like plain cheddar to me. Pizzas/chips/beans/veggie burgers in gurdwaras seem like a good thing to me.

When I was a kid, I hated going to the Gurdwara. I didn't understand anything that the giani was saying. At least having non-desi food meant that kids these days can do seva (help with making pizzas and cutting potatoes etc) and look forward to the Gurdwara. It helps form a positive relationship and helps lead them towards Sikhi.

[S1ngh]

what are the difference between langar 50 to 100 yrs ago and now days? Is langar more heathy now or back in days?

As far as i know, langar back in days or what normal rural folks eat was simple dal without tarka/spices. My grandparents told me that the only time tarka is done if the dal is day old or so on. They never used tarka on dal freshly made and that was same with gurughar langar.

[Mehtab Singh]

To be honest, one Gurmukh also told me that Langar should be treated as parshaad, meaning you partake it sparingly as the main purpose was to feed the needy or travelers who happened to stop by at the Gurughar. But what we've turned it into is something exactly the opposite.

[VanHelsingh]

what are the difference between langar 50 to 100 yrs ago and now days? Is langar more heathy now or back in days?

As far as i know, langar back in days or what normal rural folks eat was simple dal without tarka/spices. My grandparents told me that the only time tarka is done if the dal is day old or so on. They never used tarka on dal freshly made and that was same with gurughar langar.

The "best" langar I've tasted (from an 'anand' POV - not a taste perspective like my erstwhile chum I mentioned on another thread) is the simplest I've ever had. It was at Nanakmata Sahib in U.P. Simple daal with piping hot prashada. The fact that the daal was ladled into my taala from a metal bucket was just fantastic.

I suppose the junk-food angle is okay to get the kids hooked into the gurughar routine. But if after 6 months certain little Singhs and Singhnis are only coming for the food then words need to be had!

[mahanpaapi]

for more details on this issue, please watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RudCrJ5qlI

http://www.sikhnet.com/filmfestival/2009/sugar-ballon-busted/

http://www.spiritualtube.com/spiritualvideos?video=FxUoZ3oi/h0=