One warm day a couple of weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting Mohammed Abdelrahim, who runs a halal cart on W. 53rd St. around lunchtime. He greeted his customers with benevolence and had a gregarious personality which kept the customers queued up along the sidewalk, although they were beat by the blistering heat of the afternoon. I eventually made my way up to the halal cart, ordered chicken over rice with white sauce and hot sauce with no tomatoes, and struck up a conversation with Abdelrahim which I didn’t expect to last over thirty minutes.
Abdelrahim was born in Hajjah, Yemen in 1976 in rather unfortunate circumstances. His father was a carpenter and he lost his mother when he was two to ovarian cancer. Because he was poor, he spent the majority of his youth in the streets of Hajjah selling miscellaneous items that people were willing to buy. When he wasn’t selling items, he loved watching the street vendors in Yemen preparing halal meat. He remembers the wooden barrels of cinnamon, peppercorn, tumeric, ginger, and chili peppers that the vendors would frequently use in preparing the food. He described the scene as being, “…so amazing that one couldn’t help being teary-eyed, although the spices permeating the surrounding air also probably contributed to the emotional display.” Laughing at his wit, I continued to dig deeper, specifically into how Abdelrahim came to the U.S and how he started his own halal cart business.
As it turns out, Abdelrahim partnered with several boys of Hajjah selling sandals a couple years after being unable to generate enough profit from selling miscellaneous items that he found off the street. The sandal selling business was extremely successful, Abdelrahim said, primarily because of the influx of immigrants from South Asia looking for “…work and sandals.” He was able to generate enough profit from the sandal making and selling business that he was able to finance his vocational education in hotel management. He applied for a work visa to the U.S. in 1995 and arrived in the U.S in 1997. After landing in John F Kennedy International Airport, he met a taxi driver towards the entrance of the airport who was Yemeni. From that moment, a friendship was developed between the two, causing the taxi driver to introduce Abdelrahim to his Yemeni friends, many of whom were halal food vendors in Midtown. Abdelrahim was slowly introduced into the halal food business in New York and he slowly was able to run his own halal food cart, and he has been proudly doing so since 2002.
After applauding Abdelrahim’s his ingenuity, I asked him how he makes his halal food different from competing halal food vendors across midtown.
“The Yemeni preparation of halal meat with the addition of tantalizing spices and herbs and of course some innovation inspired by the meat sellers of Hajjah of my youth, Abdelrahim said.
“Would you go back to Yemen, if you could?”
“Of course. You know how much I would love to see my father and the halal meat sellers who have contributed to my success in America? It would be awesome to watch them prepare the food and I wouldn’t mind getting some of the spices in my nostrils. It would bring back memories of a simpler and innocent time, although life in Yemen was especially hard living in poverty. Whereas the preparation of the meat was in plain sight for those in Hajjah, it is unfortunate that most of the preparation is of the halal food I sell is done without their knowledge. I’m certain that those standing in the queue on the sidewalk would all gather around my halal cart to see a rendition of what I saw in my youth in Hajjah.”
Thanking him for his time and his amazing story, I left with my halal food that was now cold. But I didn’t worry, because I knew that the preparation and the craft utilized in making the halal food would remain the same. I was left with an interesting story to ponder about on the subway ride back home.
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