Dorairajoo S.Mahidol University2025-11-102025-11-102025-09-01Hospitality and Society Vol.15 No.3 (2025) , 207-22720427913https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/112980This article interrogates the relationship between food and faith in an instance of hospitality in halal restaurants in the autonomous Muslim province of Ningxia in north-western China. The non-Muslim Han Chinese majority here revealed an explicit preference for eating in halal restaurants owned and operated by the Hui-Muslim minority despite the fact that Han–Hui relations in daily life were at best cordial. Critiquing Derrida’s contention on the impossibility of absolute/unconditional hospitality, the author shows that absolute hospitality is indeed possible in the commercial encounter in halal restaurants in Ningxia as it is mediated by inter-ethnic prejudices and expectations. Hui and Han, bound by rules of hospitality, perform commensality in Hui restaurants primarily because of a Chinese nationwide concern with food safety. Rocked by numerous food scandals since the early 2000s, many non-Muslim Chinese looking for safe dining options have, in the case of Ningxia, resorted to dining in Muslim-run Hui restaurants. The belief that Hui would not knowingly taint their food as they serve fellow Muslims and are, therefore, bound by moral ethical-religious values to provide safe food makes Hui restaurants the preferred dining spaces for Chinese concerned with eating without fear.Business, Management and AccountingSocial SciencesArticleSCOPUS10.1386/hosp_00096_12-s2.0-10502058153320427921