Hwajing Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd today hosted a food tasting session at the newly launched Spices, a halal restaurant on SuperStar Libra.

The first Malaysia homeported ship with a Halal restaurant, Spices has been officially granted the Halal Status after rounds of through and thorough strict inspections and dialogue session with Penang State Islamic Religion Department on April 9, 2013.

On the same occasion, Hwajing Travel & Tours introduced their Muslim cruise and tour packages catered for the growing Muslim market.

Dr. Ezani Farhana, the Champion of MasterChef Malaysia Season 1 was also invited to cruise along on board SuperStar Libra to sample the menu designed for Spices during the weekly sailing to the tropical Thailand Islands of Krabi and Phuket.

“70% of Malaysia population is Muslim. 20% of Hwajing’s customer base is Muslim and the rate is at an optimistic growth. We see this as an opportunity to pioneer this current trend and provide more interesting options for our Muslim customers. For the Muslim travelers, food and beverages is one of the key concerns for travelers during traveling. Therefore, we have been working closely with our partners in designing different traveling packages to provide more options and better travel experience for our Muslim community. We are now introducing this five day/four night Shanghai-Suzhou-Hangzhou-Wuxi Halal tour package. This package comes with Halal meals and the nearest mosques are identified for Muslim to perform their daily prayers throughout their trip. In fact, Hangzhou Phoenix Mosque is one of the four greatest mosques in the coastal area of Southeast China. So far, we have received optimistic sales and great vibes from our Muslim travelers,” said Mr. Kenny Cheong Ken Lee, Managing Director of Hwajing Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd.

Hwajing Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd is also taking the lead in consulting the Guangxi Tourism Board (China) in implementing Muslim friendly facilities and Halal food quality control.

“We took the responsibility to reassure the Halal tour package is up to the expectation amongst Muslim travellers. We personally went to restaurants in China to inspect the food preparation and make sure that all the processes are certifiable by Jakim’s standard,” Mr. Cheong added.

Speaking at the food tasting session, Dr. Ezani Farhana shared her traveling experience. “I lived in Australia for 6 years to pursue my higher education and I did travel a lot by myself. As a Muslim, we can find prayer rooms everywhere in Malaysia easily. When I was traveling with my friends at overseas, there are no proper prayer rooms for Muslim. We perform our prayers either at outdoors such as fields or parks, changing room or nursing room in shopping malls. I am impressed that I can enjoy Halal food and rent a prayer mat on Cruise. It is my pleasure to join Hwajing Travel and Tours for this wonderful trip and taste the Halal food at Spices restaurant. I love the sea and usually go for scuba diving but this is my first time to go cruise in a comfortable and luxury setting. At the same time, I am very happy to have my mother with me to share this experience.”

In preparing the upcoming Raya festival, Dr. Ezani was also invited to conduct a Raya cupcakes decoration with passengers and media.

During the food tasting session at Spices, the bud-tantalizing menu consisted of Ulam Ulam Sambal Belachan, Sop Rusuk Kambing, Nasi Briyani Samudera, Ayam Percik Seri Menanti, Udang Galah Kuzi, Daging Kicap Berempah and to end it of Ais Krim Goreng Pulut Hitam all prepared under the supervision of Executive Chef Saiful Isakandar Ikhsan, who recently brought a team of his chef and bagged 14 medals and 13 diplomas at the Battle of the Chefs 2013 held in June 2013.