I know a guy who is a very devout Muslim, whose "home cuisine" is basically potatoes, sauerkraut, and pork sausage. He comes from a part of the fiddly little "-

I know a guy who is a very devout Muslim, whose "home cuisine" is basically potatoes, sauerkraut, and pork sausage. He comes from a part of the fiddly little "-istans" that weren't quite Asia and weren't quite the former Soviet Union, where really all they had to eat were potatoes, cabbages, and the pigs that ate the scraps. The general idea is that if you live in a desert then - as with Jewish dietary restrictions - eating stuff like shellfish and pigs that don't naturally lend themselves to being eaten unrefrigerated a hundred miles from the sea in 40°C weather is not a good idea. But if it's roughly the same climate as Scotland and you know what you're doing, it's all just fine, it's far more haraam to starve yourself to death when you can eat a big bowl of lentil and ham soup.