kebab

Kebab is a wide variety of meat dishes originating in Persia and later on adopted in the Middle East, Turkey, South Asia and Asia Minor, that are now found worldwide.

The origin of kebab may lie in the short supply of cooking fuel in the Near East, which made the cooking of large foods difficult while urban economies made it easy to obtain small cuts of meat at a butcher's shop. The phrase is essentially Persian in origin and Arabic tradition has it that the dish was invented by medieval Persian soldiers who used their swords to grill meat over open-field fires. According to Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan traveller, in India, kebab was served in the royal houses during the Delhi Sultanate period(1206-1526 AD), and even commoners would enjoy it for breakfast with naan.

Döner:

Döner kebab, literally "rotating kebab" in Turkish, is sliced lamb, beef or chicken, slowly roasted on a vertical rotating spit. The Middle Eastern shawarma, Mexican tacos al pastor and Greek gyros are all derived from the Turkish döner kebab which was invented in Bursa in the 19th century by a cook named Hacı İskender.[20] Döner kebab is most popularly served in pita bread, as it is best known, with salad, but is also served in a dish with a salad and bread or French fries on the side, or used for Turkish pizzas

called pide or "kebabpizza". Take-out döner kebab or shawarma restaurants are common in many parts of Europe. Döner kebab is popular in many European countries, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

In Australia and the UK, kebabs (or döner meat and chips) are most popularly eaten after a night out, representing a large part of nightlife culture. As a result, many kebab shops (and vans) will do their main business in the hours around closing time for local pubs and clubs (usually from 10 pm to 4 am). The same applies for Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Ireland, New Zealand, Canada, Scandinavia and Italy. It is therefore not uncommon to find similar late-night kebab vending shops in holiday-clubbing destinations such as Ibiza and Thailand.

Health concerns about döner kebab, including unacceptable salt and fat levels and improper labeling of meat used, are repeatedly reported in UK media.