According to research carried out by Turkish master chef Rennan Yaman, who lives in Berlin, the doner kebab is an amazingly young creation of Ottoman cuisine. Neither in the written recipes of the medieval Arab cuisine nor in the Turkish cookbooks from the first half of the 19th century are there any indications. ^ Eberhard Seidel-Pielen (May 10, 1996).^ Jenny Walker Terry Carter Lara Dunston (2007).Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Street Food Around the World: An Encyclopedia of Food and Culture. ^ Kraig, Bruce Sen, Colleen Taylor (2013).Shawarma - An Arab sandwich similar to the gyro. Around the World of Food: Adventures in Culinary History (Paperback ed.). Shawarma is a popular Levantine Arab specialty. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa. Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa: D-K. The Arabian Nights Cookbook: From Lamb Kebabs to Baba Ghanouj, Delicious Homestyle Arabian Cooking. 'Thank the Ottoman Empire for the taco al pastor'. ^ a b c d Prichep, Deena Estrin, Daniel ().^ a b c d e f g h i Marks, Gil (2010).It is served inside chapati or paratha bread with a generous serving of sauces, and fillings such as french fries and cheese, and sometimes a dash of hot sauce.

In Bahrain, there is a shawarma variant known as malgoum, meaning “loaded” or “heavily filled”. Some restaurants offer additional toppings, including grilled peppers, eggplant, or french fries. It is often garnished with diced tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, pickled vegetables, hummus, tahina sauce, sumac, or amba mango sauce. In Israel, most shawarma is made with dark-meat turkey and is commonly served with tahina sauce because yogurt sauce with meat would violate the Jewish dietary prohibition on eating milk and meat together. Tarator sauce is made from garlic, tahini sauce, lemon, and water, and is served with beef shawarma. Toum or toumie sauce is made from garlic, vegetable oil, lemon, and egg white or starch, and is usually served with chicken shawarma. The garlic sauce served with the sandwich depends on the meat. In the Middle East, chicken shawarma is typically served with garlic sauce, fries, and pickles. Shawarma is commonly served as a sandwich or wrap, in a flatbread such as pita or laffa. Spices may include cumin, cardamom, cinnamon, turmeric or paprika, and in some areas baharat. Shavings are cut off the rotating stack for serving, customarily with a long, flat knife. A motorized spit slowly turns the stack of meat in front of an electric or gas-fired heating element, continuously roasting the outer layer. Pieces of fat may be added to the stack to provide extra juiciness and flavor.

The slices are stacked on a skewer about 60 cm (20 in) high. Shawarma is prepared from thin cuts of seasoned and marinated lamb, mutton, veal, beef, chicken, or turkey. Shawarma, in turn, led to the development during the early 20th century of the contemporary Mexican dish tacos al pastor when it was brought there by Lebanese immigrants. History Shawarma in Lebanon, 1950Īlthough the roasting of meat on horizontal spits has an ancient history, the shawarma technique-grilling a vertical stack of meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks-first appeared in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, in what is now Turkey, in the form of doner kebab, which both the Greek gyros and shawarma are derived from. Shawarma is an Arabic rendering of the Ottoman Turkish çevirme (چيويرمى) (, 'turning'), referring to the turning rotisserie.

Shawarma is a popular street food in the greater Middle East, including Syria, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Iraq, and other Levant countries, also served widely in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Thin slices are shaved off the cooked surface as it continuously rotates. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it may also be made with chicken, turkey, beef, or veal. Shawarma ( / ʃ ə ˈ w ɑːr m ə/ Arabic: شاورما) is a Middle Eastern dish that originated in the Ottoman Empire, consisting of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in an inverted cone, and roasted on a slowly turning vertical rotisserie or spit.

Chicken shawarma sandwiches