About the dish
Shawarma is meat – usually chicken, beef or lamb – marinated in warm spices, lemon and garlic, stacked on a vertical spit and roasted slowly in front of the heat. Thin, crisp-edged slices are shaved off with a long knife and wrapped in thin Arabic bread or pitta with the trimmings. Chicken comes with toum – a fluffy, pungent sauce of garlic, oil and lemon – and pickled cucumbers and turnips, while beef is paired with tahini sauce, tomato, onion and parsley. Shawarma is the essential street food across the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, eaten late at night and on the go. It comes from the same tradition as Turkish doner kebab.
Main ingredients
- chicken or beef
- warm spices
- garlic
- lemon
- thin flatbread
- pickles
Lebanon: In Lebanon chicken shawarma comes with toum garlic sauce, and beef shawarma with tahini and sharp extras.
Syria: In Syria the wrapped shawarma is often toasted again on a griddle and cut into smaller pieces.
More: Wikipedia (en)
