Thursday, May 13, 2010

Lesson #8: How to Beat the Meat


gyrchefAmigoChino1Giant Kebab in Paphos, Cyprus at Xmas 2008gyrfish


Call it what you will: Gyro, Döner Kebab, Churrasco Turco, Tarna,  (i do, actually, dare you to say any of these out loud in front of other people, especially those of you who don't know a foreign language) ... but where I come from, rotating meat on a spit that is cut by a hand-held Skilsaw, served wrapped in a flatbread, with salad and sauce, is called Shawarma... i mean, what else could it possibly be called? 


And just like the confusion that looms over the Submarine/Torpedo/Hero/It's-just-a-f--king-sandwich Sandwich... everywhere you go it's called something else.  Personal favorite?  Taco's al pastor... excuse me, but no taco truck I have EVER seen has any al pastor that I have eaten that was shaved off the spit with an electric knife.  Waaaaaaay to complicated.

I was inspired to write this post because I have been recently been living down memory lane, and as happens in my life so often, these memories are riddled with my Jewish heritage.  Not that shawarma is a Jewish food in any way (it's Turkish, Greek, Lebanese, or in the  case of the picture above, apparently Mexican as well!) .... people have been eating meat on a stick roasted over fire since fire was invented.  But it is Middle Eastern/Mediterranean fare, and food in these parts seems to always blend together no matter what you call it.  Too bad religion is not the same.
Just check out this link and look at all these different versions of meat on a spit that exist in the city of Chicago alone! 

And by the looks of the photos above, it either looks like if you serve Shawarma for a living you will either end up a hunched over Quasimodo from years of trying to beat the size of your meat, or else you will have a lot of fun.  See all the fun hats you can wear???!!!  I am personally a fan of the street knife-bearing bandanna-wearing Mexican.  
  
And if a dancing kebab is not for you, and you cannot muster up the excitement the pizza chef seems to have for slicing up his meat, how about a fish sandwich?  

For those of you who are looking for the greatest metaphor for life, you MUST watch this video about living life through the eyes of a Shawarma  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8Q3U2uFD6M  

Moral of the story?  Life's a bitch and then you die.... by way of burning fire and sharp objects.

1 comment:

JohnnyA said...

Meat on a stick. Nothing better. The best gyros I've ever had were in Paris, of all places. But maybe that's just because I was 14 years old and with my cooler older sister who was stoned and looking for food. Being right down the street from the famous Shakespeare Book Company doesn't hurt.

The döner kebab is really popular in Germany and is awesome. The large Turkish population sells it as street food. The DK is ubiquitous in Munich where there's a massive Turkish population.

Love this post. It sends me down memory lane, as well.

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Napa Valley, California, United States
I teach Culinary Arts