Oct 10 2008
in which I talk about food a little
Speaking of British-Turkish things, one common item of Turkish cuisine is the kebab. You know, like shish kebab? That’s the usual name for a food that’s become standard in the West, with meat and other stuff stuck on a metal skewer and grilled. Well, “shish” is actually an Anglicized but direct version of the Turkish in question–şiş kebap–and it does refer to some kind of meat and other stuff cooked or grilled on a skewer. In the U.S., though, “shish kebab” and “kebab” are pretty much synonymous, but that’s not at all true in Turkey: not all kebabs are shish kebabs. Döner kebabs, for instance, are very common–that’s meat roasted on a vertical spit, and the vendor slices chunks off the sides to put in a pita or however it’s going to be served. You’d see those everywhere in Istanbul–early in the morning, the spit would still have fat and grease on the sides, freshly stuck on there, but later in the day it was obvious the sides had been pretty well shaved down.
Well, apparently kebab houses are a big deal in the UK; apparently they’re a huge part of nightlife culture, often eaten after a night out clubbing or Whatever The Kids Do These Days. I discovered this mostly because of a flier stuck under our flat’s door advertising döner kebab and a number of other dishes I recognized from Turkey. How this happened, I have no idea; Turkish cuisine is nowhere near this common in America.
