Halal Carts: New York

Irfan Rydhan

Over the last 5 to 6 years, New York City has seen an exponential growth of it’s “Halal Food” industry.

One element is the very visible “Halal Food” carts, which number well over 200 all across New York City and the surrounding areas.

The majority are located in Manhattan, but I also came across one in the Chinatown section of Flushing, NY on my recent trip – which was a very pleasant (and tasty) surprise!

5 Comments

Irfan Rydhan

July 27th

Well out of the 3 halal carts that i went to. 1 was Bengali. 1 was Afghani and the 3rd was Persian. I also know that many of the "Indo-Pakistani" restaurants in NYC are run by Bengalis as well.

Kadir

July 26th

P.S. I beg to differ Irfan, but I know my people. If 'alot of the carts' are run by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis in NY, I don't see them. they all look Egyptian to me.

Irfan Rydhan

June 14th

@Kadir - you make a good point. There should be some kind of certification process in order to use the term "Halal" on these carts. I know there are several different orgs working on this now, so maybe some day soon it will happen, InshaAllah. P.S. A lot of the carts are run by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, so not all of them are Arab.

Kadir

June 14th

Although it's a good marketing ploy, it's a misuse of the word 'Halal'. To decorate these carts with the word HALAL & tasmiyyah just seems phony to me. It's just ARAB STREET FOOD that you would hope is truly Halal. And Tayyib. I'm glad their making money though. Just my two cents.