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Skip to contentSkip to site index Search & Section Navigation Section Navigation SEARCH SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEKLog in New York|What’s Behind a $10 Chicken Over Rice From a Cart? An $18,000 Permit. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/nyregion/nyc-costs-chicken-rice-cart.html * Share full articleShare free access * * WHAT’S BEHIND A $10 CHICKEN OVER RICE FROM A CART? AN $18,000 PERMIT. By Stefanos Chen Photographs by Ahmed Gaber Feb. 4, 2024 Blame rising costs, shrunken crowds and a black-market permit trade. Chicken over rice — a sauce-drenched, workweek staple — costs $10 at the Halal Plates, a cart in Lower Manhattan, up from $6 prepandemic. Nearly everything has surged in price, said Mahmoud Mousa, a co-owner of the cart, which opened near Zuccotti Park in 2016. The owners now pay $22.50 for a 10-pound bag of chicken, almost twice the cost in 2020. “It’s very normal to be losing money every single day” during the winter, when more customers work from home, Mr. Mousa said. A box of clamshell containers has jumped to $28 from $11 in 2020. Sauces have gotten pricier, too. Since 2020, a gallon of yogurt-based white sauce has climbed to $13 from $9. Mr. Mousa’s red sauce of choice, a spicy sambal, costs $23 a gallon, up from $11. But the biggest factor? A slip of paper. Mr. Mousa said the business paid a former vendor $18,000 in cash in 2022 for a food cart permit — an illegal arrangement — because the city limits the number of permits. Mr. Mousa and his business partner bought a new cart in 2019 for $47,000 — mostly from savings and family loans. They also paid $3,700 for a neon sign and $2,000 for menu display panels. Supported by SKIP ADVERTISEMENT WHAT’S BEHIND A $10 CHICKEN OVER RICE FROM A CART? AN $18,000 PERMIT. * Share full articleShare free access * * * Read in app By Stefanos Chen and Ahmed Gaber Feb. 4, 2024, 7:09 p.m. ET But Mr. Mousa focused on one number: 3,892. That was his position on a New York City food vendor waiting list. Like thousands of the city’s mobile food vendors, Mr. Mousa cannot get a permit for his cart, the Halal Plates. A longstanding cap limited the number of permits to 5,100, before a 2021 law began allowing for 445 new permits a year for a decade. So far, the city has issued 71 new permits. Almost 9,500 people were on waiting lists in January, according to the city’s health department. A spokesman said it had released 1,074 applications — a permit prerequisite — since the law was enacted, but most applicants had yet to complete the process. While he waits, Mr. Mousa said he and his business partner pay $18,000 in cash every two years to rent their permit from a Bronx cabdriver who Mr. Mousa said obtained it decades ago for a few hundred dollars. Mr. Mousa said such arrangements were the only ways many vendors, who otherwise follow regulations, can avoid fines and confiscation of their carts. Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Mr. Mousa hopes to negotiate the same price this summer, but anticipates the permit holder will try to raise it. Sign up for the New York Today Newsletter Each morning, get the latest on New York businesses, arts, sports, dining, style and more. Get it sent to your inbox. “What can I do?” Mr. Mousa said, adding, “He has the thing I need.” Such is the math of chicken and rice — a heavily spiced mound of boneless chicken with yellow rice and a side salad — which swept the city in the 1980s, after a wave of Egyptian immigrants arrived. Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like. Stefanos Chen is a Times reporter covering New York City’s economy. He previously covered real estate in the city for over a decade. More about Stefanos Chen * Share full articleShare free access * * * Read in app Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT SITE INDEX SITE INFORMATION NAVIGATION * © 2024 The New York Times Company * NYTCo * Contact Us * Accessibility * Work with us * Advertise * T Brand Studio * Your Ad Choices * Privacy Policy * Terms of Service * Terms of Sale * Site Map * Canada * International * Help * Subscriptions Enjoy unlimited access to all of The Times. See subscription options