100% zabiha halal
The meat is the one part we did not have to go looking for. It comes off the halal butcher counter inside Hebron Market, in the same building the shawarma counter is going in.
What zabiha means
Two words, one of them stricterThe two words are not interchangeable, and the difference is the whole reason this page exists. Switch between them.
Zabiha describes how the animal is slaughtered. Four things, all of them, every time.
- By hand
- A single cut
- The name of God spoken over it
- The blood drained
When we say 100% zabiha halal, we are talking about the meat itself.
Used loosely on a menu board, the word can mean little more than this.
- No pork on the premises
Which is a claim about the premises, not about the meat. That is the difference the first tab is describing.
Where the chicken comes from
Three steps, and no fourthThe butcher counter
Yousef runs the halal butcher counter at Hebron Market, the grocery at 1522 Tremont Street.
One building, one owner
The counter and the kitchen are in the same building. The meat does not leave it between the two.
The spit
The chicken for the spit comes off that same counter.
No separate supply chain to explain, and no third party in between. The grocery is open and trading today, so you can go and look at the butcher case before we ever serve you anything.
A shawarma cone is stacked by hand, one layer at a time, and whoever stacks it decides what goes on it.
Which is why the last three sections are about who that is, and where they get the meat. Because the counter and the spit are in the same building, the answer is the same person in both cases.
What we have not said yet
We have not published a certificate, a certifying body or an opening date, because none of those is ours to announce yet. What we can tell you today is where the meat comes from and who cuts it. When there is more, it goes here.
The same owner runs Crispy Dough Pizzeria at 1514 Tremont, four doors down. It is a separate restaurant with its own kitchen and its own address, not another branch of this one.