NYTimes: Halal Evening
Published by Haseeb December 3rd, 2006 in Current NewsNYTimes: Halal Evening
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG
Published: December 2, 2006
Let me catch this moment. I am making a pilgrimage to the late-night halal food stand at the corner of 53rd and Sixth. It is Nov. 30, and the temperature at 8 p.m. is 66 degrees. I used to walk right past the halal food stands on Sixth Avenue, wondering at the long lines waiting along the curb. I always slowed a little in the curried air, imagining a cartoonlike tendril of scent beckoning with a crooked finger. Now I join the lines, and I know that at certain times of day the world boils down to some very simple questions: lamb or chicken, pita or rice, white sauce or red sauce.
December will begin in a few hours, and it is 66 degrees. The temperature feels permissive. At least that is how some of the Midtown crowd reads it, as though this were a pleasant late summer’s night or a release from the clutches of a season that hasn’t clutched us yet. The streets are filled with people in sartorial confusion, in the undress of summer, the overdress of winter and everything in between. Times Square is jammed with tourists seized for the instant in the flash of their digital cameras. There is no reason to go inside. The whole city seems to have poured into the streets. Only a few faces show the nagging dread this warmth carries with it. “If this is November …” some of them are thinking.
It is still early, so the line is short at the halal food stand. The culinary dialect here is not the same as the one at the halal stand I call home, and I get the wrong order. It makes no difference. If it were 28 degrees, as it should be, the scent from the grill would seem tightly bounded by the night, everyone huddling a little closer as if they could get warm in the smell of curried chicken. But not tonight. There is an urgency close in, where change is being made and food handed over in saffron plastic bags, but that is all the urgency there is.
For some reason the word civilization is floating in my mind. Not the honorific use of the word but a use that might be analogous to “ecosystem.” What put the word there isn’t the crowds — so diffuse in their purposes — or the everyday ironic familiarity of eating halal food in the beating heart of the Christmas rush. What puts the word there is the warmth. It makes the strangeness, the self-containment of this city life, more palpable than it has ever seemed before. It raises a corner of the carpet on which we are all standing.
VERLYN KLINKENBORG
waaaw i wish i was there.
The more the kuffar find out about Chicken Guy, the worse its quality gets
^LMBO!!!!
They just started one of those halal gyro/chicken vendors on monday right next to Queens College. That was one of the greatest days of my life.
btw the tone of the article is just perfect.
@ QC? Really? Where is he located (on Kissena Blvd?) and what are his hours?
Agreed. I’ve notice that as well, considering I’ve had his food one too many times in the past two years. Nevertheless, its still the best in the city.
I went to the chicken guy on Liberty Ave and 121st street last nite, it was pretty good. They use afghani rice and white sauce.
The guy told me they started the one at Queens College, corner of Kissena blvd & Horace Harding, right by the gas station. Their hours are Monday-Saturday 10am-10pm.
well 53rd n 6th is very popular but i think if u eat his food one too many times it gets a bit too much, Ive also been to the guy on Liberty and 121 and this guys food i think is MUCH better than 53rd n 6th but he just isnt recognized due to his location.
i’ve never been to nyc, and street food is illegal here in montreal … but all i can say, is that due can write
*dude
I dunno, the QC chicken guy keeps on moving around. last time i checked, on friday it was near the corner and kissena and horace harding, but its not at the gas station anymore. When i asked him, he said his hours were from 10am-7pm.
ahsan u got it wrong…the timings are from 10am to 10pm. The first day it was infront of the qc’s first gate(across the pizza place) but now its always across the gas station. That stand is owned by crown fried.
^ oyaaa that gas station, i was thinking of the other one.
btw the 53rd and 6th one has a fan website http://www.53rdand6th.com/ its actually a really good quality site.
MY MAN JUNAID FROM THE BRONX IS IN THE HOUSE
Montreal is gay, street food is illegal but strip clubs on every corner aren’t?
Vive le Quebec
aiite. montreal. people in brooklyn ought to check out the halal gyro stand on clarkson avenue. they have the best halal for blocks for just 5 bucks.