shawarma

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern and North African 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. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it may also be made with chicken, turkey, beef, or veal. Thin slices are shaved off the cooked surface as it continuously rotates. Shawarma is a popular street food in the Greater Middle East, from Sudan to the Levant countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, Iraq, Armenia, Georgia, also served widely in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Etymology Shawarma is an Arabic rendering of the Ottoman Turkish çevirme (چيويرمى) (, "turning"), referring to the turning rotisserie. History Although 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, 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.