FARIDA - Finest World Dishes

A windowless basement room on Cedar Street holds Manhattan's only halal Central Asian restaurant, dim enough to lose track of the time of day. Umka pies come stuffed with pumpkin, spinach, beef or chicken, the noodles are pulled by hand and made fresh daily, and the plov piles rice with chunks of beef and lamb. Chicken thigh kebabs off the grill are the other order worth making.