Hungry For Halal
Karl Anthony Towns is playing hungry for the Knicks again, like he hasn't had a Chopped Cheese Sandwich since the Dominican Day Parade or from Mainstreet Muncheez in Danbury, CT.
I rave about my Chopped Cheese Sandwich discovery at work, explaining how I'm more in touch with my NY roots since I've had my 1st Chopped Cheese Sandwich, a bodega cheese steak creation from Spanish Harlem, despite my first experience eating one being at Mainstreet Muncheez in Danbury, CT. A female coworker who wasn't involved in my conversation with my coworker notices that I have the room's attention, which annoys her. So, Mrs. Buzzkill says, "That's a bad area. I wouldn't go there."
And I say, "When you lived in Queens and Brooklyn, you're not sweating a breezy walk down Main Street in Danbury, no offense."
Anyone who works in Danbury or the neighboring area needs Main Street Muncheez in their life; it's across the street from the Mothership Café, another regional culinary pride in Danbury. The handsome Brookview Commons West is a modern apartment complex that gleams above next-door signals that more positive, cosmopolitan change is in the air.
Now, some people who've never worked in Manhattan aren't familiar with Halal food or, dare I say, "street meat", which is what Main Street Muncheez specializes in while making it anew. The Lamb and Chicken over rice with white sauce, hot sauce on the side at Main Street Muncheez is top tier, top of the heap, in a league of its own. The yogurt-based white sauce oozes with sultry, super-tasteful flavor, and the smoky, chunky, not insanely hot, hot sauce is a winner, assuming you don't drape your entire dish in it.
Understand that Halal food adheres to Islamic dietary law, which is similar to Kosher law, forbidding pork but allowing the eating of cow, lamb, and chicken, slaughtered in a ritualistic way that causes minimal animal suffering, which pleases our maker. Both religions use a specialty knife to kill the animal, except Muslims give a shout to Allah before slicing Mary's Little Lamb's throat.
Now, most Chicken Cheese Steaks are bland, boring, and annoyingly regrettable. The Chicken Cheese Steak I had at Mainstreet Muncheez doesn't suffer from the same depressingly predictable fate. Then again, not every Chicken Cheese Steak is made from holy minded, Halal chicken. Try a Chicken Cheese Steak from Muncheez on Main Street. The West Conn kids can't get enough of them, and you'll never crave a dry, ordinary, traditional cheese steak from Jersey Mike's ever again.
I can't emphasize this enough: the Lamb and Chicken over rice at Mainstreet Muncheez is perfect. The only problem is that it disappears from your plate way too fast. The firm chopped lettuce strips, interspersed throughout the Lamb and Rice, add a welcome springy complexity to the pillowy yellow rice beneath.
But my favorite lunchtime treat from Mainstreet Muncheez is the Chopped Cheese Sandwich.
I'd enter a no-go-zone area in London to snag one if they made them there.
The Halal meat wasn't spilling out from the side.
The chopped meat was perfectly seasoned.
The bread was fresh, crisp, and crackled with East Coast bread authority.
The lettuce and tomatoes inside the Chopped Cheese Sandwich were fresh and snappy.
A hit of Ketchup inside the Chopped Cheese Sandwich was a welcome insertion that didn't make it taste like a cheeseburger from Beefsteak Charlie's either.
My Chopped Cheese Sandwich was more satisfying, flavorful, and life-enriching than the short rib grilled cheese I had earlier that week, which came with tomato chutney at a posh, upscale, farm-to-table American restaurant in Danbury.
You don't need the munchies to enjoy Main Street Muncheez on Main Street in Danbury, CT.
Every morsel of Halal blessed meat shines.
I'm only eating Kosher meat and halal meat now because of it.
Kosher chefs and Halal chefs produce holy-hued meat creations that please our creator for not eating anything that's plopped in front of us.
I'm hungry for more Halal and have no problem becoming a new age evangelist for my new Kosher, Halal meat mix diet. read more