Kosher Meat in San Diego

[Rosiepigs]

My parents just moved to San Diego and can't find a good kosher market or at least a source for kosher meat in the area. Does everyone just overpay for Empire goods at regular markets? Your help would make a good dutiful son to my mother, which honestly, is every Jewish boy's goal.

[Rodzilla]

Please forgive my ignorance here, I realize Kosher and Halal are not the same, but is Halal meat also Kosher?

Balboa international market in Clairemont has a halal butcher. There's also MidEast Market and Fresh Hallal Meats

The Ralphs in La Jolla does have a pretty good selection of Kosher products, but I don't think that they have an extensive selection of meat.

[craigcep]

Halal meat is not kosher because of some rules on how kosher animals are slaughtered and the meat prepared. Halal-keepers, on the other hand, will often eat kosher meat because it is slaughtered by a "person of the book." That is not 100% universal, but many halal-keepers do so.

[sandiegomike]

You're exactly right craigcep. We sponsored a Saudi family at the Naval War College. The wife was very keen to learn where she could buy "Halal" food. I called my Rabbi friend at the Chaplains School and got his wife together with the Saudi wife to learn where "Kosher" food was sold in Rhode Island. Problem solved. The two protocols are not precisely the same but they overlap enough to make both Kosher and Halal eaters satisfied most of the time.

[craigcep]

It's only a one-way solution. Kosher keepers won't eat halal meat. It is not prepared according to Jewish law as related to butchering of the animal and soaking and salting it to get rid of blood. Nor is the knife cut satisfactory. Also, halal does not separate meat and milk, prohibit non-kosher meat with the exception of pork or prohibit seafood to the full extent.

Halal keepers are generally ok with kosher, except for prohibitions on alcohol (often in flavorings like vanilla).

[Rodzilla]

thanks for this, I was having trouble finding a straight answer.

[Cathy]

The La Jolla Ralphs has a separate Kosher meat counter and several aisles of Kosher foods (very different from other Ralphs locations).

[RB Hound]

I believe I recently saw an ad where Ralph's was listing 5 locations with Kosher delis and sections, though the La Jolla was the only one in San Diego County IIRC.

[Cathy]

Yes. The advertising of Ralphs with Kosher meat counters (both pre-wrapped Empire meats and glass meat counter with butchers) has been around for at least eight years now and La Jolla has always been the only San Diego location.

[DiningDiva]

There's a place called...well, The Place on El Cajon Blvd. around 65th St. in the San Diego State area that is Kosher. I also understand that one of the guys from there recently opened a place inside the JCC in La Jolla

This is an old CH thread - http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/423885 - I don't know how current or accurate it may still be, but you might want to start there.