However Mr. Mousa centered on one quantity: 3,892. That was his place on a New York Metropolis meals vendor ready listing.

Like hundreds of town’s cell meals distributors, Mr. Mousa can not get a allow for his cart, the Halal Plates. A longstanding cap restricted the variety of permits to five,100, earlier than a 2021 regulation started permitting for 445 new permits a yr for a decade. To date, town has issued 71 new permits.

Nearly 9,500 individuals had been on ready lists in January, in response to town’s well being division. A spokesman stated it had launched 1,074 purposes — a allow prerequisite — because the regulation was enacted, however most candidates had but to finish the method.

Whereas he waits, Mr. Mousa stated he and his enterprise companion pay $18,000 in money each two years to hire their allow from a Bronx cabdriver who Mr. Mousa stated obtained it a long time in the past for just a few hundred {dollars}. Mr. Mousa stated such preparations had been the one methods many distributors, who in any other case comply with rules, can keep away from fines and confiscation of their carts.

Mr. Mousa hopes to barter the identical value this summer time, however anticipates the allow holder will attempt to increase it.

“What can I do?” Mr. Mousa stated, including, “He has the factor I would like.”

Such is the mathematics of hen and rice — a closely spiced mound of boneless hen with yellow rice and a facet salad — which swept town within the Nineteen Eighties, after a wave of Egyptian immigrants arrived.

Mr. Mousa, 30 and likewise from Egypt, raised the dish’s value by 67 p.c since 2020. He stated he closed the enterprise for over a yr, working as a meals supply driver.

Operating the cart consists of monitoring dozens of bills, beginning with saving $750 month-to-month for the allow. The enterprise, which depends on college students and workplace and building staff, operates in two 10-hour shifts, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. Within the winter, Mr. Mousa and two cooks (paid $150 a day) work Wednesday to Sunday; after Easter, they work daily.

Mr. Mousa additionally pays $450 month-to-month for house in a storage and commissary kitchen in Crimson Hook, Brooklyn, to retailer the cart and components. He spends $30 a day for a employee to scrub the cart, and $65 to have a driver haul it to and from Decrease Manhattan.

A lot of the cooking occurs within the 5-by-10-foot steel cart. A $2,000 generator powers a small fridge; the flattop grill and fryer burn by a $25 propane tank every day. An $18 bag of basmati rice is often cooked by commissary staff.

Within the colder months, the enterprise may make $500 every day, Mr. Mousa stated — a web loss, however sufficient to outlive till the summer time, when gross sales vary from $700 to $1,400 a day. Rooster over rice is the most well-liked dish, accounting for two-thirds of income.

New York is the one main American metropolis implementing a cap on meals vendor permits, stated John Rennie Quick, a professor emeritus on the College of Maryland, Baltimore County. However that would change.

In December, Metropolis Council members introduced a bill to extend the variety of new permits issued yearly — to 1,500 from 445 — and take away the cap after 5 years.

Mohamed Attia, the managing director of the Avenue Vendor Undertaking, an advocacy group, stated the modifications can be transformative.

Opponents say eliminating the cap may create overcrowding and issues of safety.

A spokeswoman for the mayor’s workplace stated town was reviewing the laws.

For Mr. Mousa, who lives along with his spouse and child in Jersey Metropolis, N.J., a reputable allow may save him important quantities of cash. He stated he additionally has an possession stake in two carts close by that additionally use borrowed permits.

Sufficient financial savings, maybe, to kick-start his retirement. “In my 50s,” he stated, “I’ll be fishing on a lake.”

Produced by Eden Weingart, Andrew Hinderaker and Dagny Salas. Growth by Gabriel Gianordoli and Aliza Aufrichtig.