Doner Kebab All Hype?

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Ride-sleep-repeat
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Ride-sleep-repeat »

The Doner Kebab is an essential late night after the pub snack.There's a local Kebab shop that does one as long as your forearm 8) I've finished off plenty for breakfast 8) Even Doner meat with chips and chilli-sauce will do!!
Meat(??) salad,bread,sauces/spices.....perfection :mrgreen:
Cyril Haearn
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Years ago I read about a popular pastime/competitive sport in areas with many asian eateries, consuming the hottest strongest curry one could find

Is that still a thing?
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Ben@Forest »

Oldjohnw wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 9:52am Haggis shouldn't be deep fried. It is delicious when done properly and with the right accompaniments. Doner kebabs, on the other hand, should be banned by Health and Safety.

That is just my view, of course, but I am right!
Is haggis haggis though? According to Wiki traditionally the meat is sheep's pluck (heart, liver, and lungs) and encased in the animal's stomach. The casing is now artificial (collagen and cellulose) - OK - but I think a lot of recipes do not use heart and lungs any more, and some include using beef as well as lamb. I've eaten haggis on enough occasions to think 'this is OK' but never astonishingly good.

I'm rather reminded of cassoulet in the SW of France. I've eaten a lot of cassoulet in a lot of restaurants and in homes (my mum made a good one and so does my wife). But when I got to eat it in it's traditional fashion and where it really hails from it's a much less refined dish. It's not bad but it's unusually coarse for French cuisine and I guess that's not surprising as it was originally peasants' food. And I wonder what we'd think if we ate a genuinely 17thC tasting haggis?
Tangled Metal
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Tangled Metal »

I went to Leeds university and regularly visited Theo's grill near the Parkinson buildings. Got written up by the guardian restaurant critic and given 4 or 5 stars out of 5.

That had the elephant's leg for the masses but also Greek kebabs and other foods. Stuffed vine leaves dolmades, lamb kebabs with real meat, etc. Proper cooked kebabs. All served in the standard way in a pitta with salad and a sauce. Huge portions and was filling as the 10" pizzas from next door. Best kebabs ever!!!

Needless to say the doner kebab was mostly well cooked because even half cut students on their way back from student night at a club wanted mostly good kebabs. The cylinder of meat got well cooked between servings. Looks horrible. Ever seen one sober?? You'd not eat one if you had!!
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simonineaston
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by simonineaston »

My good friend Umit owned a kebab shop here in Bristol, in the '00s. He was Turkish. He prepped his kebabs from fresh ingredients himself and his main seller was shawarma, which was delicious! I used to hang out with him, as his other thing was jazz - he was a huge fan and had hundreds of LPs and CDs. I'd pop in to see him in his tiny shop up the top of Whiteladies Road and we'd listen to his latest finds and share large glasses of robust red wine, while he'd do all the prep. I once asked him about doner kebab and he was rather dismissive. He said that vendors bought them in, ready prepped (due to the nature of their construction) and that while quality varied widely, they were all percieved by customers to be the same ie of dodgy provenance, the very epitome of the derogatory phrase 'mystery meat'. His view was that he preferred to prep the shawarma himself as it was in effect a hand-made product and he could sell it with a modest price premium, the location of his shop being such that locals were prepared to pay for quality.
S
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Ben@Forest »

Tangled Metal wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 10:44am Needless to say the doner kebab was mostly well cooked because even half cut students on their way back from student night at a club wanted mostly good kebabs. The cylinder of meat got well cooked between servings. Looks horrible. Ever seen one sober?? You'd not eat one if you had!!
For about two years I worked close to a kebab shop. The doner 'variety' was what looked like sliced meat stacked up on each other rather than minced. On many days for lunch I had a small pitta, this meat and salad - no chips. Loved it. I remember reading at the time that this was heathier than fish and chips. Of course dietary advice has probably changed twenty times back and forth since - but I was definitely sober.
markjohnobrien
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by markjohnobrien »

Cyril Haearn wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 10:26am Years ago I read about a popular pastime/competitive sport in areas with many asian eateries, consuming the hottest strongest curry one could find

Is that still a thing?
It was when I was at university 25 years ago, as I bet a friend on eating a phaal at our favourite curry house: I won, although it wasn’t pleasant, but the loser had to pay for the next days drinking in the best pubs in York. I nearly bankrupted him😀
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Ben@Forest »

markjohnobrien wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 11:12am It was when I was at university 25 years ago, as I bet a friend on eating a phaal at our favourite curry house: I won, although it wasn’t pleasant, but the loser had to pay for the next days drinking in the best pubs in York. I nearly bankrupted him😀
After a large Mexican meal a friend bet me I couldn't eat the 'Death By Chocolate' dessert. It was seven varieties of chocolate dessert - a piece of cake, a mousse, a brownie, ice-cream etc. None of them was quite as big as an individual dessert but it was a lot of dessert on a very big plate. I ate it then rubbed it in by finishing off his fruit salad he couldn't manage..... :)
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simonineaston
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by simonineaston »

I remember reading at the time that this was heathier than fish and chips.
A good doner kebab, in my vew, makes for a filling, inexpensive and healthy light meal. Consider the ingredients: a single flatbread, lightly toasted, packed full of fresh-chopped salad - fine shredded cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes & onions, dressed with a light oil and lemon juice, a modest portion of spiced / seasoned minced-meat, a choice of fresh tomato-based hot sauces - or perhaps a humus-based sauce and maybe the traditional pickled green chilli or a handful of chopped parsley / mint. The bulk of the meal is - or should be - the salad and the bread. The x factor will be the quality of the doner meat itself. The very worst will be factory-prepared 'mystery-meat' whose origin probably does not bare close scrutiny for the squeamish - think hydraulic extraction, perhaps from parts that traditionally wouldn't make it to the butcher's slab... if you know what I mean. The consequant lack of wholesome texture & flavour will be taken care of by sundry processing ingredients such as rusk, stabilisers, preservatives & flavouring including a ton of salt and a ton of fat... add to the mix that outlets who are less than super-busy will have the same doner on the go for several days, meaning it will cool and reheat, cool and reheat, through several cycles - a food-poisoning bug's delight! - as well as slowly losing fat each time and slowly getting dryer and dryer. No Michelin stars here, folks.
At the other end of the spectrum, a popular & busy outlet will be buying in a decent-quality product, made from well-butchered and carefully-spiced meat, served with care and pride and if the outlet really knows what they are doing, the whole skewer, most likely, will have disappeared into happy, discerning customers, by the end of each night.
The problem, of course is telling the one from the other, although there are a few tell-tale signs to help.
S
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
bungle73 wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 7:13pm Never had one of these before. I’ve recent started ordering using Uber Eats and this evening I decided to give one these elephant leg meals a try. I wasn’t that impressed tbh, and I ended up throwing a lot of it away. It didn’t help that I ordered one that was too big either because I couldn’t tell how much each size gave you. The way people rave about them you’d think they were the bee’s knees, but nah. I don’t think I will have one again. No wonder they mainly seem to get sold to people who have a lot to drink. I ordered some Ben and Jerry’s ice cream too, so I think I will tuck into that.
Yeh I am 62 tried once once.............give me a burger any day!
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Paulatic wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 8:39pm
Jdsk wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 7:14pm The first time I saw one was off Tottenham Court Road in 1974. I spent some time pondering which part of an animal it could be.

Jonathan
Go to a fatstock auction and see who buys all the cheap poorly finished animals. There’s your answer.
They still auction ponies / donkeys then :mrgreen:
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markjohnobrien
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by markjohnobrien »

simonineaston wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 11:47am
I remember reading at the time that this was heathier than fish and chips.
A good doner kebab, in my vew, makes for a filling, inexpensive and healthy light meal. Consider the ingredients: a single flatbread, lightly toasted, packed full of fresh-chopped salad - fine shredded cabbage, lettuce, tomatoes & onions, dressed with a light oil and lemon juice, a modest portion of spiced / seasoned minced-meat, a choice of fresh tomato-based hot sauces - or perhaps a humus-based sauce and maybe the traditional pickled green chilli or a handful of chopped parsley / mint. The bulk of the meal is - or should be - the salad and the bread. The x factor will be the quality of the doner meat itself. The very worst will be factory-prepared 'mystery-meat' whose origin probably does not bare close scrutiny for the squeamish - think hydraulic extraction, perhaps from parts that traditionally wouldn't make it to the butcher's slab... if you know what I mean. The consequant lack of wholesome texture & flavour will be taken care of by sundry processing ingredients such as rusk, stabilisers, preservatives & flavouring including a ton of salt and a ton of fat... add to the mix that outlets who are less than super-busy will have the same doner on the go for several days, meaning it will cool and reheat, cool and reheat, through several cycles - a food-poisoning bug's delight! - as well as slowly losing fat each time and slowly getting dryer and dryer. No Michelin stars here, folks.
At the other end of the spectrum, a popular & busy outlet will be buying in a decent-quality product, made from well-butchered and carefully-spiced meat, served with care and pride and if the outlet really knows what they are doing, the whole skewer, most likely, will have disappeared into happy, discerning customers, by the end of each night.
The problem, of course is telling the one from the other, although there are a few tell-tale signs to help.
Agree: a good Turkish place I frequent on Willesden Lane, London, has outstanding and freshly made bread, great salad, and really nice meat. They even make the chilli sauce themselves. A world away from the bilge you can get at some places.

It pays to be discerning.
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Ben@Forest
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by Ben@Forest »

simonineaston wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 11:47am The very worst will be factory-prepared 'mystery-meat' whose origin probably does not bare close scrutiny for the squeamish - think hydraulic extraction, perhaps from parts that traditionally wouldn't make it to the butcher's slab...
It also makes you wonder what we used to eat and now don't which makes it way into processed food instead. My wife's grandfather ate pigs trotters, nowadays people don't - but if pig trotter meat is recovered and put into pies or sausages does that make it worse? It maybe the addition of salt or preservatives does - but not the actual meat quality itself.
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simonineaston
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by simonineaston »

give me a burger any day
Exactly the same sort of food - inexpensive, quick to prepare, designed to be eaten on-the-go, hence the built-in handle; easily obtained, everday ingredients, meat protein in modest quantities (until our good chums over the pond super-sized it, that is...) & bulked out by cheap, raw & quickly-prepared fresh vegetable-based filler, with pickles / chilli-based sauce to up the texture and the flavour. The doner with its emphasis on the salad as the main ingredient is argueably the healthier - Well Done The Levant!! The US took the healthy bits and perhaps predicably given the size and importance to its economy of its beef-cattle industry, slower reduced the proportion of vegetable to meat-protein, to its current vestigial state of shredded iceberg lettuce - which of course is practically water-in-leaf-form! - factory-produced pickles & sauce and maybe a slice of "American Cheese" which is as much like real cheese as its near name-sake "vegan cheese"...
A buddy of mine was so vegetable-averse that he use to order a burger from Macca's, "without the lettuce, the tomato, the cheese, the pickle and the sauce, please", which as sharp-eyed readers can no doubt work out for themselves, means the bun and the meat pattie... surely one of life's most pointless gustationary pastimes!! Ironically, he moved to America.
S
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bungle73
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Re: Doner Kebab All Hype?

Post by bungle73 »

[XAP]Bob wrote: 15 Apr 2021, 10:11am
bungle73 wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 8:18pm
markjohnobrien wrote: 14 Apr 2021, 7:52pm

Excuse me: I wouldn’t touch lager with a barge pole but am a discerning CAMRA drinker, who travels the country visiting their pub(s) of the year, but can drink properly unlike you...
What does that mean..............?
It means that some people think of drinking as an activity primarily design to kill brain cells, and others don't.
And how does that apply to me..........?
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