Halal cart

A halal cart is a food cart which serves primarily halal food, particularly in New York City, but also in other metropolitan areas in the United States. A halal cart platter consists of chicken shawarma or lamb gyro, yellow rice, and salad, with optional red and/or white sauce on top.^[1] The red sauce is believed to derive from harissa, while the white sauce may come from zabadi (similar to tzatziki).^[2]

A halal cart in Jamaica, Queens, New York

The origin of the halal cart is disputed, but The Halal Guys was one of the first, starting off as a hot dog cart in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, before switching to halal food in the 1990s.^[3] As early as 2007, halal carts had already begun displacing hot dog carts as the city's dominant form of street food. A Queens College study showed that there were 306 street vendors who immigrated from Germany and Italy to New York City in 1990, and none in 2005; over the same period, those from Egypt, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan had risen from 69 to 563.^[4] The ubiquity of halal carts in New York City has been compared to that of taco trucks in Los Angeles.^[2]