NEW YORK (Atlas Obscura) -- When Jiniya Azad, Sameen Choudhry, and Tahirah Baksh searched Google for “halal restaurants in New York” a few years ago, they had trouble finding anything besides the “halal carts” that slung shawarma and falafel. So they made it their mission to seek out what lay beyond these limited search results. And what they found was a world brimming with everything from Pakistani hot chicken and Uzbek dumplings to Turkish flatbreads and roast brisket on rye.
“There’s this multiculturalism of different kinds of restaurants and people just wanting to try other people’s food,” says Azad, one-third of the team of food bloggers known collectively as Muslim Foodies.
Since 2017, Azad, Choudhry, and Baksh have reviewed around 370 New York area halal restaurants for their blog and gained an international following for their mouth-watering depictions of halal food.
For a food to be considered halal, it must adhere to Islamic laws dictating how animals are slaughtered and prohibiting the eating of certain animals, such as pork. For Muslims intent on following halal dietary rules, choosing a new restaurant can be challenging.
Muslim Foodies began when Azad, Choudhry, and Baksh were members of the Muslim Students Association at Manhattan’s City College. Growing up in the Bronx and Queens, they’d eaten mostly the halal cooking of their families and nearby restaurants. In a new borough with different culinary offerings, they bonded over a shared interest in trying new cuisines while following halal guidelines. But back then, few resources were available for intrepid foodies set on eating halal meat.
Muslim Foodies’ posts help people navigate the cuisines of what some people call the most diverse Muslim community of any metropolitan area in the world. New York City’s approximately 770,000 Muslims hail from over 75 countries, and their food—from the prune-dotted tagines of Morocco to the chili-slicked beef dumplings of Muslim Chinese cuisine—reflects this diversity.
Today, Muslim Foodies counts about 86,900 followers on Instagram and 90,400 followers on TikTok, in addition to those who read their blog.
By day, Azad is a graphic designer and photographer, Baksh is a medical scribe, and Choudhry is a physician assistant. They still manage to post halal guides to everything from pizza to Black-owned restaurants, and their blog hosts a halal restaurant map that eaters can use to find new restaurants near them.