When Ramil Kunakkulov landed in Western Pennsylvania, he had no idea he’d one day make a life here. And he certainly didn’t know his future would hinge on a food truck that dished up Mediterranean food instead of dishes from his native Russia.
It was 2007, and he was a college student studying environmental protection and engineering in Bashkortostan, a small Russian republic in the Ural Mountains. Through a summer work program, he and his best friend found jobs in Grove City working for a food concessions and catering company. It was fun, but they had degrees to complete. They returned to Russia in the fall.
Two years later, after Mr. Kunakkulov graduated and had to ponder the age-old question of what to do with his life, he thought once more about his summer here.
“This is different than in our own country,” he says. “There’s opportunity. ... I felt so free as a student when I came here. I realized I can make money here and enjoy it and do stuff.”
He ended up working for the same Grove City company, learning every aspect of the hospitality business, before striking out on his own six years ago with the PGH Halal Truck.
It wasn’t actually a truck but a food cart inspired by ones he’d seen dishing up egg sandwiches, hot dogs and other street food on trips to New York City and Chicago. Even though the idea was still pretty novel at the time in Pittsburgh, Mr. Kunakkulov thought he could do it.
“I knew the business from start to end and wasn’t taking any other shots,” he says.
Man, was he on to something. The cart proved so popular that a year after launching in 2015, Mr. Kunakkulov bought a used Cintas truck in Erie that he refurbished with his father, Rafis. In 2018, he bought a second truck, and it’s been a success, too. They’re often on the road at the same time, though it’s been a little harder to staff them since the pandemic hit.
His wife, Gulfina, was behind the wheel in the city on a recent Friday while he and 14-year-old Moad Albahboh fed a hungry crowd in Ben Avon.
The most popular dish, he says, is a lamb gyro ($10). The thin, flat slices of meat are served in a warm, soft pita with lettuce, tomato, onions, and a mayonnaise- and yogurt-based “secret” sauce made by his mother, Mavlida.
Chicken over rice ($13) is another favorite and comes as a platter that includes a small side salad of lettuce, tomato and onion. Wedges of pita scoop up the bed of fragrant basmati rice underneath the sliced meat.
Other menu items include halal hot dogs ($4), chicken pita ($10), hummus and pita ($7), and falafel — deep-fried balls of chickpeas, herbs and spices tucked inside a pita for $10 or served over rice for $13. For less adventurous palates, they also serve chicken tenders with fries ($12).
As a test, Mr. Kunakkulov once tried serving Russian piroshki (meat pies) and pelmeni (dumplings) for one week. He got few takers.
He says he decided to focus on Mediterranean halal food both because he’s Muslim and because halal carts appeared to be New York’s dominant form of street food. He didn’t see much of it here.
“Back then, there was only Salem’s,” he says, referring to the Strip District market and grill.
Halal is Arabic for “permissible” or “lawful” and refers to the way the animal is slaughtered: by hand. During the process, Halal butchers recite a special verse called zabiha. Halal food can never contain pork or pork products (that includes gelatin and shortenings) or alcohol, because those are forbidden.
Some customers ask Mr. Kunakkulov, who lives in West Mifflin, to explain the food truck’s name, but most don’t really care. They simply like the food because it’s delicious and totally different.
“It’s not what they eat back home,” he says.
In all his years on the road, he says only one customer has raised a ruckus over the Arabic word on the side of his trucks. Compared to big cities like New York, Pittsburgh is “easy.”
“People are nice and have no issues,” he says.
Gretchen McKay: gmckay@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1419 or on Twitter/Instagram @gtmckay or @pgrecipes.
First Published: September 16, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: September 16, 2021, 3:24 p.m.