Just under the tracks where the number seven line crosses Roosevelt Avenue and 74th street in Queens, two food trucks sit side by side. Their menu is simple— chicken, lamb and falafel, either as gyros or over rice. As soon as one cart hits its tenth or eleventh hour, the cart next to it roars to life. Making Sammy’s Halal Food a 24-hour operation.

“I suffered a lot,” said Samuel Noor, the owner of both Sammy’s Halal trucks. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I didn’t even know how to cook.”

The 50-year-old, who came to the U.S. from Pakistan in 1990, began the food truck business in 2002, after living in Waco Texas and driving a cab in New York City. He hated being a cabbie.  The mundane nature of the work and the stress all wore at him, so when someone he knew approached him about a food truck, he jumped on the opportunity. He borrowed $50,000 to cover all the costs— the truck, the food, the license— and he got to work.

One of Sammy’s Halal Trucks in Jackson Heights, Queens. Photo Courtesy of Sammy’s Halal Trucks.

Noor was working 18 hour days and not even making enough to cover his bills, doing everything from cleaning the truck to cutting the onions to cooking the food and selling it to customers. His wife had to move back to Pakistan temporarily while he was trying to get the business off the ground because he couldn’t cover living expenses for them both.

“When you’re working for two years and not having any money to show for it, it’s hard,” Noor said. “But I realized my business partner was profiting from me, so I had to buy him out.”

And that’s exactly what he did. He borrowed more money— which put him almost $75,000 in debt— and became the sole owner of Sammy’s Halal Food.

Two years later, in 2006, Sammy’s Halal won the Best Vendy award— an annual street food competition that determines the best street food vendors in New York City.

“By stealing, by harming, by hurting, you don’t go anywhere,” Noor said. “I learned to be very honest. To be real. And to know that if you’re never wrong, you never learn.”

Sammy’s Halal Truck’s signature dishes– chicken, lamb and falafel over rice. Photo Courtesy of Sammy’s Halal Trucks.

Now Noor works for himself, creating his own hours and overseeing operations. He lives in Queens with his wife and two daughters— ages 17 and 11. He mostly grabs his own meals on the run, and on a recent day decided to sit down to eat at Kabab King— right down the block from his food trucks in Jackson Heights.

At home, he and his wife cook frequently. Sometimes Chinese food, other times, Italian. But with his wife getting her master’s degree in psychology at Columbia University, and his somewhat erratic schedule, they don’t always get to sit down to eat together.

He scoops his chickpea lentils with some naan bread he’s using as a makeshift spoon. In front of him is crispy tandoori chicken leg covered in spices, some shish-kabob marinated in onions, cilantro, garlic and ginger, and some chicken curry. He has a few pieces of everything piled on his plate, and he uses his hands to pick through it.

“It took a lot of trial and error. There was adding this to the spice, or that, and sometimes the food came out really good. Other times, it didn’t,” Noor said, of his own food-truck menu. “But our food is different. It’s Mediterranean food with Indian spices, essentially.”

People come from all over to get a bite at Sammy’s. One couple waiting on line came from Virginia. They frequently visit Manhattan, but always make sure to include a trip to Queens to get their favorite lamb gyros.

Samuel Noor working with his staff to make rice for his dishes. Photo Courtesy of Sammy’s Halal Trucks.

At one point, Sammy’s was in all five boroughs, but they’ve since focused in on their operation and have their Jackson Heights operation, and one on West 4th in Manhattan. They have two wholesale stores in Manhattan and sell to other food truck vendors and restaurants around the city.

“People always ask me, what’s your secret? What’s in the sauce?,” Noor said. “And I could tell them everything that’s in it, and they still couldn’t do it the way we do it. Because it’s not just the spices, it’s the amount, it’s the time, it’s the fire. It can’t be copied.”

As one of 10 children, Noor always dreamed of his own business in the United States. His mother, now 84, is still back in Pakistan, but when she comes to visit, she’s happy.

His father passed away in 1997, a few years before Sammy’s Halal Food came to be.

“My father was a sweet and jolly man. He was so enterprising, he could really do anything. When I was growing up, he was more of a businessman,” Noor said. “I like to think I learned from him.”

Sabrina Caserta