“Let me get the chicken over rice,” said Jeff Brown, a Harlem native. Abdol Arabi, night chef at Harlem’s Halal Food truck, gets up and smiles. Brown stops by almost every day at around one or two in the morning and always orders the same thing:  grilled chicken over spicy rice with a healthy heaping of white sauce. But Arabi asks anyway, to make sure.

Lamb and chicken over spicy rice with salad. Photo: Aisha Powell

“Spicy or white rice,” Arabi says.

“Spicy, and add that white sauce,” says Brown.

The wind gusts after Brown makes his order; it’s around 40 degrees. Brown turns and heads towards  Texas Chicken and Burgers, that stands adjacent to the food truck on 116^thand Frederick Douglas Blvd, to keep warm while he waits. “Extra sauce,” he yells as walks to the restaurant.

Arabi, 40, is originally from Morocco. He is slight — just over 5’6″ — with a salt and pepper goatee, and for six years he’s been the truck’s only night-shift employee, working from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. As he chops chicken and onions together he says that he likes the late hours, because he gets to run the show.

As the end of the shift approaches, Abdol simultaneously cleans and prepares for his first, and sometimes only, meal of the day.

On a good day, he gets home to Astoria at four in the morning and wakes up at 10, eats breakfast and talks to his family in Morocco on What’s App, a popular international messenger app. He and his sister, who lives down the street from him, are the only ones in the U.S., having arrived 15 years ago. He relaxes until two and then goes to see some friends or take another nap before heading to work at five.

“I have to make time for all that,” he says. “I can wake up early if I need to meet someone.” He usually prefers his sleep. He makes time to see his sister and her kids at least once a week, he says.

But he hasn’t had one of those days in a while, because closing time recently changed from two to three in the morning. The halal spot used to be just a stand on the sidewalk, but since the owner acquired a food truck, due to new New York food regulations, his hours have shifted. He’s lucky if he makes it home before five and if he can wake up before three.

He travels about an hour to get to work every day. “It’s not that bad,” he said. The train ride, if there are no delays, is peaceful to him.

As he turns off the back grill, used for cooking lamb and beef, and the fryers, which are mainly used to cook French fries, he gathers ingredients to start his own “go-to dinner” combo; chicken and lamb over rice.

“First you need the rice, as always,” he said.

Arabi scoops copious amounts of rice into a large Styrofoam container, and then smashes it down with the back of his spoon, creating a bed for the rest of his food. Sometimes he likes the spicier rice, but usually he sticks with white rice so his stomach won’t get upset.

Next, the meat.

When Abdol first came to the U.S., he was obsessed with McDonald’s – and he could a consume an entire bucket of Popeye’s chicken by himself.

“I used to eat at this Texas spot too,” he points to the restaurant. But eventually eating all that fried food caught up to him. He was always getting sick and felt sluggish, so he gave it up.

It’s been two years since he has eaten what he calls “American delicacies.” He now prefers his Halal foods or dishes at African restaurants.

He grabs the lamb and chicken and begins figuring out theperfect ratio. Sometimes he likes more chicken because it keeps him full, he says, but on a “good lamb” day he likes 60 percent lamb. Today, he opts for more chicken.

Arabi grilling a lamb-chicken combo for his dinner. Photo: Aisha Powell.

It is already seasoned by the morning shift guy, but Abdol adds more cumin. The intricacies of chopping the meats into bite-sized pieces with a spatula come naturally to him now. He chops the meats while he looks away to speak to a customer who’s a friend of his.

A homeless man who comes by all the time stands outside the cart. Abdol turns and gives him a high five. After a quick conversation about the weather, Abdol turns into his money box, pulls out a twenty-dollar bill and hands it to the man, who thanks him over and over again.

Back to cooking. Abdol uncovers his chicken and lamb and adds water.

Some people only come to the cart for Abdol, he says. They trust him to make their food the way they like it.

“I have customers that wait outside for 30 to 40 minutes before I start to work,”  he says. He is a crowd favorite for the evening customers and a familiar face. Most people that walked up  greeted him by name.

He adds the lamb and chicken on top of the rice until you can’t see the white anymore. Next he drizzles white sauce and hot sauce on the top. He opens the refrigerator and pulls out chopped iceberg lettuce.

Arabi hasn’t gotten tired of halal yet, it reminds him of home he says. He likes it so much, that even on his off days he consumes the same meals he makes at the truck, with fish for the protein.

He adds the salad on the side of his Styrofoam box, then he closes the box. It’s three in the morning, so he turns off all the grills. He pulls out a foldable chair and sits down to eat. As he devours his lamb and chicken over rice, he puts on his radio to Z100 to listen to some pop music. He is content with his meal. It’s pretty good, he says.

Aisha Powell