South Bay chef blends Muslim cooking with Mexican cuisine
Hisham Abdelfattah is a Filipino/Palestinian-American whose El Halal Amigos restaurant is a melting pot of foods, flavors,and cultures.
"We serve authentic Mexican barbacoa using brisket. The banana leaves give it a smokey flavor," Abdelfattah said bringing a hot dish out of an oven.
Hisham grew up on San Jose's East Side loving Mexican food.
"My favorite culture to be immersed in is the Mexican culture. And my first job at 14 was in a taqueria as a dishwasher and prep cook," he said.
Abdelfattah worked his way through Mexican restaurants - which led to culinary school, and a few more Mexican restaurants.
There was just one problem; as he became closer to his Muslim faith, he couldn't eat many Mexican dishes anymore because it wasn't halal, which means "permissible" in Arabic.
"I would go to food trucks and order a cheese quesadilla, it was terrible," he said.
So, he started experimenting, cooking Mexican food halal style-- without lard or pork, and only using ethically raised and slaughtered beef.
"A lot of cooking I did at home to fill that void, then a lot of friends started saying, man, you're really good at this," Abdelfattah recalls.
When Covid hit and he was thrown out of work, he gambled his savings to start the El Halal Amigos food truck.
In four years, his food became so popular, it escaped from the street and came indoors to a brick and mortar in San Jose's Willow Glen district.
It's a success story that came during a tumultuous time for San Jose businesses. While some never survived the pandemic, many have found a way to come back strong.
"The pandemic was a challenging time for small businesses in San Jose, but as we look over the last ten years, we've seen net growth in small businesses. San Jose is an incredibly diverse and entrepreneurial city," said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.
"In fact we have 66-thousand small businesses. We've seen a lot of them hang on and start to thrive coming out of the pandemic."
City data shows the last decade has seen the greatest number of businesses launch in San Jose.
A third of them are micro businesses with 2 to 9 employees.
"I credit a lot of that to the incredible entrepreneurs we have in San Jose and the community that loves to support its neighborhood businesses. But also the fact that we have prioritized making the city safe and clean as we get back to basics," added Mahan.
The city also offers grants and tax credits for businesses that move into vacant store fronts.
And last year, the city launched a small business advisory committee made up of small business leaders.
"It's important for the city to hear our needs," said Christina Bui, the advisory committee vice chair and the owner of Love Me Knots, a small bridal and dress shop.
"There are so many programs out there that businesses can use to help with marketing, social media and just how to become a better business," Bui said.
Back at El Halal Amigos, Abdelfattah found partners to help him with one of the top challenges small restaurants continue to face: the rising cost of rent and food.
The rest is up to him and a core group of employees who have been with him since the beginning.
"The day we launched the food truck, I had 40 dollars to my name. I told my staff, I don't know how I'm going to pay you but just cook from your heart and the business will come," he said.
And he's exposing his dishes to new customers everyday.
"I feel like as a Muslim, it gives me a place to try a lot of good variety of Mexican foods and not feel guilty that I'm not having halal meat," said customer Angelina Aslami.
Abdelfattah is proving that taking a risk, doing the hard work and having great partners are keys to making it during hard times.Though, of course, it helps to have a product that appeals to food lovers of any faith.