The lunch menu at Fauzia’s Heavenly Delights cart is always a surprise, sometimes even for Fauzia herself. “Every morning after I finish cooking, I handwrite my menu,” says Fauzia Abdur-Rahman. “Sometimes I will have one thing in my mind, and by the time I get to work and finish cooking, there might be two changes on the menu.” It’s the surprises and Fauzia’s “nouveau-Caribbean” food that have kept lunch crowds coming back for going on twenty years. Lunch offerings from her cart might include Jamaican curry chicken, tofu tikka, spicy stewed black beans with coconut milk, creamy butternut squash soup with mushroom, roti, and her sinfully good Nilla® wafer–laden banana pudding. “The customer likes the element of surprise. They come to the cart, and it’s not just grilled chicken, rice and vegetables,” she says. A self-proclaimed “freestyle cook,” Fauzia credits Indian, Asian, Mexican, African, and West Indian influences, saying, “I’m Jamaican, but my food crosses all boundaries.”
Fauzia speaks about food with such eloquence and passion, it’s hard to believe that when she first came to this country she didn’t know how to cook anything. Fauzia and her sister came to New York from Jamaica to visit her aunt for a summer of fun in 1978 and fell in love with the city. “We were just mesmerized by 42nd Street and all the lights, you know?” Fauzia says. When it came time to go home, her aunt asked her, “‘Why are you going back to Jamaica to your father’s house? You’re twenty years old, why don’t you just start your life?’” So Fauzia stayed. Despite having two years of college, she wasn’t exactly qualified for most of the jobs open to her as a new immigrant. Coming from her father’s home, where they had two servants, “I didn’t cook. I did not cook. I didn’t wash, I didn’t do absolutely nothing.” She eventually found a job at a Jewish nursing home in Riverdale bringing in around $35 per week. Her life turned around when one of her friends hooked her up with Kelly Girl Service, a temporary staffing agency, where suddenly she was being tapped for long-term assignments and working for $19 to $20 per hour.
Fauzia had another change in fortunes after her son was born in 1984. After several years struggling as a working single mom, her own mother sat her down and told her that she needed her own business. Fauzia’s mother spent the whole summer teaching her to cook. They started with the basics: codfish cakes and sorrel, a popular drink in the Caribbean. With her mom’s help she ventured out for her first selling experience at an African American festival in Newark. Despite being woefully underprepared—“We got down there, we realized we didn’t have a table.… ”—they sold out. At her next event, they added a few more items to the menu, and the business grew from there. Fauzia wanted to expand her business and get a cart, but she had a decent job working for the city in the Department of Finance. She was scared to leave, so she kept cooking as a side business.
“People know quality. New Yorkers? Oh please, New Yorkers have the most sophisticated palate in the world.”
Meeting her husband Amin inspired Fauzia to begin cooking more vegetarian dishes. “To me it was so much easier to cook. It didn’t take a whole lot of time. I could make it really nice and flavorful.” With the support of her husband, Fauzia applied for a Bronx-specific vending license when her maternity leave for her second son ended and cashed out an insurance policy. “It was just enough—$5,000—and the cart cost $4,500.” Fauzia and her husband lived in Manhattan and didn’t know the Bronx at all. After getting chased away from a spot outside Lincoln hospital, they found their home outside the district attorney’s office on the corner of 161 Street and Sheridan Avenue—and have been there since February 21, 1994.
Fauzia arrives at her spot at 8:30 in the morning and prepares everything fresh on the truck. Lunch starts at 11:00 a.m. and finishes up when she’s sold out, usually around 4:00 or 4:30 p.m. They used to sell out by 2 p.m., but recently they’ve faced some tough competition from a new market nearby that “went around to all the different businesses and they basically got an idea about what everybody sells and opened up a big megastore and put everything in there … when you walk in there it’s one-stop shopping.” While the new market has put a temporary dent in Fauzia’s business, it would take a lot more to get this 2008 Vendys Award final-ist down. In 2012 she started summertime vending as part of the concessions on Governors Island, bringing her eclectic food to a whole new audience. “My philosophy is if I’m not going to eat it, I’m not going to give it to you. It has to be the best.”
Fauzia takes interest in her customers and keeps up after them, like the young boy who would come to the cart to talk to her after his mother passed away. “I would say, ‘You know what, you bring me your report card. For every 85 you get $5. Anything over 90, you get $10.’ That’s what I did with my kids. I said to myself, maybe his mom would do that.” For her older customers who can’t make it out to the cart anymore, Fauzia has her husband bring them meals. Cook and confidante, Fauzia is a treasured member of the community. “It’s not just about food,” she says. “When you talk at my cart, the metal absorb it. Nothing is revealed.”
Adapted from Fauzia Abdur-Rahman’s recipe
One of the most popular dishes at Fauzia’s Cart is her curry chicken. Made Jamaican-style with lots of spices, plenty of ginger and garlic, the thick sauce is ideal for spooning over rice. Fauzia serves this with her Sautéed Mixed Vegetables (page 256). One of the secrets to this curry is “seasoned salt” a mix of salt, herbs and seasoning.
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon cumin powder
1 tablespoon seasoned salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Pinch of dried or 1 sprig fresh thyme
1 tablespoon Jamaican curry powder
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
½ large onion, coarsely chopped
1 scallion stalk, white and green parts finely chopped
3 cloved garlic, peeled, and minced or crushed
2 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken legs and thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 cups cooked white or brown rice, for serving, if desired
Mix all of the ingredients, except for the chicken and olive oil, in a large bowl. Add chicken to the bowl and thoroughly rub ingredients into the chicken.
Cover and marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Add olive oil to a large cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven. Place seasoned chicken with marinade in the skillet. Add 1½ cups water and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until chicken is cooked and sauce has reduced. Serve over rice, if desired, with Sautéed Mixed Vegetables (page 256).
Adapted from Fauzia Abdur-Rahman’s recipe
Fauzia’s flavorful vegetable sides are a big draw with her lunch crowd and super-easy to prepare at home. Serve this with Jamaican Curry Chicken (page 255)
1 (10-ounce) package frozen mixed vegetables (peas, corn, string beans, etc.), thawed
1 medium white onion, diced
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ medium cabbage, shredded (about 3 cups),
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon salt, or more to taste
pinch or two of black pepper, or more to taste
In a large cast-iron skillet or frying pan, sauté mixed vegetables with onion and garlic powder in oil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until vegetables are cooked and tender.
Add cabbage and basil. Cover and steam over medium-high heat for an additional 3 to 5 minutes, until cabbage is tender, being careful not to overcook cabbage. Add the basil, salt, and pepper.
