Doner kebabs and gyros are the same, aren’t they?
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The difference I saw when I was over there was that kebabs in Britain tend to use other sauces than tzatziki, often taken from the world of curries (fine with me, as I’m not fond of tzatziki and usually put Tabasco or Frank’s on my gyros). But the basics are the same: lamb-based, cooked on a vertical broiler, meat sliced off and grilled, and served on a pita.
For all the jokes about British food, I never had a bad meal when I was over there.
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Oh, hey, I’ve got a story for you!
I lived in Britain (mostly London) in the early to mid 80’s, when Indian sub-continent restaurants were the vast majority of eat-in or take-out places. Occasionally Chinese, and of course French, but not much variety. Came back to visit friends maybe 10 years later, and they were thrilled to take me to the new Mexican restaurant in Soho. To be fair, we were a very large and boisterous crowd, but not rude in any way. The server was barely going through the motions of getting our orders and bringing out the food as it was ready. She had a platter with a few of our entrees on it, and was calling out the dishes so that we could raise our hands to claim it as ours. Then she got to “ka-saad’-ess”. She kept saying that, over and over again, until I realized what was going on and said “Oh, quesadillas! That’s me!” She drew herself up to full height, looked me square in the eye, and hissed “ka-saad’-ess”. I looked right back at her and said “you Brits can correct my English, fine, but you can’t correct my Spanish!” Everyone laughed, and she gave me the evil eye, and we went on from there.
So, yes, there are more ethnic cuisines represented these days ‘over the pond’. I’m sure at this point they even know how to pronounce the dishes!
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At least our local Kurdish restaurant defines “kebabs” as chunks of meat skewered and grilled, while gyros are slices of lamb or beef wrapped in a pita, sandwich style. Pasty white dude here, not prepared to argue with any who have first hand knowledge but at Xenia if you ask for a kebab expecting sandwich, you will be disappounted.
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I know it’s quite trendy in Ireland. But “real” Mexican food isn’t so much a thing, basically the same gringo taco fad as in the US. With upscale casual organic taco shops and hip taco Tuesday at bars. My cousins tell me there’s one actual Mexican owned taqueria and burrito shop in Dublin and it’s constantly swamped.
Gyros are Greek. Doner Kebab is the Turkish, version. Then there’s Schwarma which is the Arabic. Depending on where you’re at you basically got your pick of which version.
NYC’s lauded Halal carts are basically just Kebab stands. Mostly Turkish or Iraqi/Kuwaiti. Bunch of Afghans and Iranians too. They also tend to make Kofta and Adana kebab too. Sort of locally mutated of course.
Tzatziki is used a bunch of places. But the name and the version of tzatziki we’re familiar with is Greek. So you’ll find it at Greek places. Not on Kebab and other non-greek versions of the dish. The different versions from different places have different sauces. And then those sauces get adapted based on where in the world you’re actually eating it.
Those Halal carts tend to make a spin on a thinner Arab yogurt sauce I can never remember the name of. But they make it from mayo. Basically mayonnaise thinned with vinegar and flavored with herbs.
It’s a whole catagory of dishes that includes that. The style genericized as “kebab” in the UK is Doner. “A kebab” tends to mean a sandwich. Where as in the US we tend to call the sandwich a Gyro even at Turkish and Arabic places.
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First pick of the season. 
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May I inquire as to what you have planned for it? A Bolognese sauce… or (at the other end of the spectrum) chili?
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Al Pastor was inspired by kebabs.
It scratches a similar itch to a good doner or durum.
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You named it! Sometimes called Ragu?
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Indubitably!
One of the things I learned from having grown up in my mom’s and aunts’ kitchens, is that a proper ragu requires that the meat just barely be cooked (no longer pink; requires constant stir-frying to cook evenly) before adding the follow-up ingredients — one of which should include whole milk. All that makes the ragu sweeter without having to resort to adding sugar (as some do as a cheat). Anyway, that ground round looks fabulous and begging for special attention! 
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Wow! Thank you for sharing your experience. Old handed down recipes are the best.
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I just learned that making spam musubi is hella easy! You just need a cup of rice, 1 can of spam, a couple sheets of nori (toasted seaweed), and some soy sauce with sugar in it.
Cook 1 cup rice with 2 cups chicken stock (or water if you don’t have yummy broth around).
Cut the spam into 8 thin slices (about 1/4" each) and through them in a pan with some hot oil. Fry them until they have crisp sides.
Mix some soy sauce with sugar in a small bowl, then brush it on to both sides of your cooked spam. Cook them again a bit longer. The sauce should caramelize a bit.
When done, put a sheet of saran wrap into the empty can of spam and fill it with a couple spoonfuls of rice. Pack the rice in firmly and make sure it evenly covers the bottom of the spam cup.
Then put a spam patty on top of the rice and press it firmly and evenly.
When done, pull the saran wrap out with the tightly formed spam and rice inside of it.
Cut your nori sheets into thirds. Take one strip of nori and wrap it around your spam musubi. Then wrap the whole thing up in saran wrap and store it in the fridge until you are ready to eat it. Yum.
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Now, all I can think about is trying this.
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Sometimes the simplest recipes taste the best. Oxtail and diced steak, white onion, carrots, parsnips. Browned in oil and butter, sprinkled with mustard powder, topped with slices of potato and topped up with beef stock and ground black pepper. Slow cooked in a Dutch oven for 3+ hours, then the lid was removed and the temperature was increased for last half hour to crisp the potato slices on top.
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Add some spiced butter and extra-hot pulverized pepper, and you’ve got a mean kitfo, there.
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Shedlandia Sid’s Sourdough Crumpets
Ingredients
- 150g of sourdough starter. We used our “Sourdough Sid” starter, which is a white bread starter.
- 4tsp of sugar
- 250g of strong white flour
- 280ml of slightly warm milk
- 2tsp of baking powder
- 4tbsp of warm water
- 1/2 tsp of salt
- butter to grease the pan
Method
- Mix the sourdough starter with the strong flour, sugar, and warm milk to make a smooth batter.
- Leave the batter overnight at room temperature. The following morning it should be bubbly and fluffy.
- Mix the the baking powder with the warm water, and add it to the batter
- Mix the 1/2 tsp of salt into the batter
- Set a frying pan on a low heat, and add enough butter to oil the bottom (treat it as though you’re making pancakes).
- Add crumpet rings or egg rings to the pan and let them heat up for a couple of minutes.
- Spoon enough batter into the crumpet rings to half fill them.
- Let the crumpets cook gently for about 15 minutes, or until the top of the crumpet has set solid. You don’t need to move the crumpets around in the pan, just let them sit and heat through.
- Remove the crumpet rings, and take out the crumpets onto a plate or cooling rack.
- Repeat until you’ve used up all the batter
Let the crumpets go cold, then toast and butter them. The butter melts into the holes in the crumpet, and makes a delicious breakfast mess.
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Note to non-Brits: ‘strong white flour’ is bread flour – higher gluten than other types of flour.
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Bean Burgers
Ingredients
- 1 tin kidney beans
- 1/3 cup of oats
- 1/3 cup of sunflower seeds
- 1/2 an onion, finely chopped
- 2 tsbp pumpkin seeds
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 1 egg
- 1 cup of breadcrumbs
- Vegetable stock cube
Instructions
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Mash the beans in a bowl
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Add everything else except for the breadcrumbs to the bowl, and mix well.
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Add the breadcrumbs gradually, mixing as you go, until the mixture starts holding together as a thick paste.
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Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and spoon some of the mixture into a crumpet ring on the paper. Lightly press the mixture into the crumpet ring, to make a firm burger.
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Remove the crumpet ring and repeat the process until you run out of mixture.
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Drizzle a little oil over the top of the burgers, and bake them for about 20 minutes at 180°C.
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Serve with green vegetables and potatoes for a meat-free alternative to a Sunday roast, or with chips and a bun.
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Damn, Dr. Lewis. You do a great recipe.Yum!
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