Shawarma

Over the last (almost) three years, we've been seeking out the foods that we miss from Canada and are slowly building up a steady selection of places to find these things in Brisbane. Jeremy knows where to go to get something similar to bacon strips like you would find at home and has also found spicy salami that tickles his tastebuds. We still haven't found the calibre of pizza that you would get in Canada, but J makes a pretty amazing homemade one with his own dough. We live a 5 minute bike ride from a reasonably priced breakfast place that does a mean eggs Benedict. Sure there are some things that we might never get here: Clamato, cheese curds, Crispers, but that's ok. Haloumi is a decent substitute for cheese curds and Canadian guests can usually be counted on for Crispers/Clamato.

One of the things we noticed right away here is that Australians don't do shawarma. In Ottawa, I don't think you're further than 1 km from shawarma at any time! They have kebabs, which are like shawarmas but not as good. Difference b/w Australia and Canada:

In Australia, Greek, Armenian, Turkish and Lebanese migrant populations have introduced shawarma. Commonly it is known simply as in Armenian kebab or in Turkish Doner kebab or, where Greek immigrants have settled, as a souvlaki, or less commonly, gyros or yiros. Shawarma costs A$6.00 upwards and is wrapped in a large pita bread or more commonly khubz, known locally as "Lebanese bread", coming with beef, chicken or lamb, salad of lettuce, tomato and onion and cheese. Sauces include "garlic sauce" (Tzatziki), chilli sauce, hummus, tomato, and barbecue. Sometimes it is toasted after being wrapped in the bread.

In Canada, the cuisine is typically available in any population centre that has recent immigrants. Due to meat handling regulations, shawarma is never available at street food stands (unlike hotdogs) and is mostly associated with food courts or pizzeria-style small restaurants. Typically, shawarma is available both as a wrap with traditional vegetables, hummus and hot and garlic sauce, or as a "plate" or "dinner" on a bed of rice with a side of vegetables and salad; the salad can be Middle Eastern, like tabbouleh, or of a more traditional variety, like Greek or Caesar. The dish is not associated with any country in particular and can be branded and served by a variety of nationals, from Algeria to Afghanistan. Shawarma is being successfully introduced as a fast food franchise by a number of companies and may not be necessarily associated with Arabian population - or mom-and-pop businesses - anymore.

I think the two main differences are pickled turnips and the garlic sauce used in Canada. In Canada, they use a garlic sauce called Toum: Toum is a garlic sauce as prepared in Lebanon, the Levant and Egypt similar to the European aioli. As well as garlic, it contains salt, olive oil or vegetable oil and lemon juice crushed using a wooden mortar and pestle. There is also a variation popular in many villages (such as Zgharta) where mint is added, called "Zeit and Toom". It is also used as a dip, especially with french fries and chicken. It is used in Lebanese sandwiches.

It is AMAZING! In Aus, they use a watery thin liquidy tzatziki type thing which doesn't come close to the deliciousness!

So anyway...what is the point, really? A Lebanese friend informed Jeremy a couple of weeks ago that she had found somewhere to get shawarma. He went and got one and it was good - even had toum and pickled turnip. But YESTERDAY after avoiding study, we found FANTASTIC shawarma. I looked up Lebanese cuisine and saw that there was a place in the suburb Morningside, which is conveniently where my BAF (Best Aussie Friend, hehe) Jess lives. I really wanted to go get some, and so did J, but I thought if I wanted it I should work for it. So we rode our bikes 20 km round trip over some pretty nasty hills to get to the shawarma place and back home again and then really enjoyed/appreciated our shawarma! We also got Jess to meet us there and introduced her to the wonderfulness - she agreed with our praise!

(Anything to procrastinate from studying...)

Speaking of which, meeting some classmates for study this morning in an hour, so should probably get moving!