St Paddy’s partiers were teased by a brief appearance by Mustafa and his Huzur Kebab truck on Friday, March 17.
Mustafa, owner of North Dunedin’s beloved Huzur Kebab, told Critic Te Ārohi that he got the idea to park up on Castle for the day from a DCC official who agreed it would be a great idea to have a food truck available to help line the stomachs of sloshed breathas.
This came after he had parked the food truck at the abandoned BP station on Cumberland St one night during O-Week, which was a massive hit with partying students according to the falafel-toting legend (we love him). “That was actually really good,” said Mustafa. “There were heaps of students coming around and grabbing their kebabs.” After the success of the night, the natural next step was into the belly of the beast, the heart of Turkish-takeaway-fiends: Castle St.
“But yeah, then a police officer kind of put me off,” Mustafa laughed. After he’d traversed the tides of broken glass to park up by Thirsty Boys on the day (offering the residents a booking fee of a kebab each), Mustafa was approached by a police officer saying, “If I was you I would leave,” warning that his food truck and car could be at risk: “It’s most likely going to get damaged.” The dodgy conditions combined with a last-minute staff shortage forced Mustafa to abandon truck.
“There was heaps of glass on the road and people on the balconies, drinking and throwing glass into the middle of the road,” said Mustafa. “I was thinking it might get out of control and people might start throwing glasses. I just didn’t want to take that risk, so I pulled out and went back to the shop.”
We spoke to a couple of the girls living at Foursome, next door to Thirsty, who agreed that having the truck there early would have been great for the people who had been drinking since the crack of dawn “If [the Castle Facebook page] knew that, then probably everyone would have gone there when they were doing their six before six.” The girls were very articulate: “Then they could eat as well because people forget to eat. Yeah.”
Short staffed, however, Mustafa understandably was not keen on fending for himself against the throng of hungry six-before-sixers (six vessels before 6am). A shame - the Foursome girls’ dry chat could have definitely used some sauce.
Mustafa said that he would be more keen to park up at Hyde St this year, if he can get permission through OUSA, since it is more of a controlled environment and there would be less risk involved both to him and his business. “For Hyde Street it would be really good because it’s quite well managed and has security.” We hope to see him there.