New York Street Food

It seems like there’s always a line at the 100% Halal & Healthy cart on the NW corner of 55th St & Park Ave.  Today it was about a dozen people, but what really surprised me was how quickly the line replenished behind me.  Between the time I walked up to the cart and the time I got lunch, there were from 10-15 people on line steadily.  But they got lunch ready fairly quickly, and I didn’t wait more than 10-12 minutes for a fresh, healthy lunch.

A few things set this cart apart from most other halal carts – their chicken is grilled over flames (which wasn’t true last time I was here), they have lots of different grilled vegetables, and you can have your chicken (or kofta) over a salad instead of rice.  It’s real easy to get a good vegetarian meal here too.

For Today’s Lunch, I got grilled chicken over a regular salad ($7), but you can also get it over a Greek salad, a Caesar salad or over rice.

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I needed a quick sandwich for lunch today near Park Ave & 57th St.  One of the best vendors in this area, 100% Halal & Healthy, actually has 2 carts – one just inside the NW corner of 55th St & Park Ave featuring grilled food, and one on the SW corner of 54th St & Park Ave featuring fried chicken, fish, shrimp and more.  Today’s Lunch is a kofta sandwich ($4.50) from the 100% Halal & Healthy (grilled) cart on 55th St just west of Park Ave.

There are several things about the 100% Halal & Healthy cart which help them stand out from the crowd.

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I didn’t know there were two 100% Halal & Healthy carts until last week when I spoke to Gamal, the owner.  The first one I went to in April on the NW corner of 55th & Park was recommended by Eric B, a NYSF reader, and it was excellent.  Very hot sauce, chicken and roasted veggies made for a great lunch.  I didn’t realize at the time this was actually Gamal’s 2nd cart.  For Today’s Lunch, I went to Gamal’s first cart, which was quite different from his second cart, as detailed below.

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Today’s Lunch was based on a recommendation from Eric B. a NYSF reader who strongly suggested that I try the 100% Halal & Healthy Food cart on the NW corner of Park Ave & 55th St.  I’m always looking for recommendations of street food vendors that stand out from the usual halal carts on almost every corner of midtown.  Based on the line of people for this cart, it looked like Eric was on to something.

Eric suggested the combo grilled platter with white sauce and hot sauce over brown rice for Today’s Lunch, which had chicken, lamb and kofta.  He also tipped me off to the existence of a 2nd bottle of hot sauce they have that’s even hotter than their regular hot sauce.  Sounds good!

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