Shawerma

Shawarma

Shawarma in a pita
Type	Meat
Place of origin	Ottoman Empire
Region or state	Middle East, Levant
Main ingredients	Meat: lamb, chicken, turkey, beef Sandwich: Shawarma meat or shawarma falafel, pita or wrap bread, chopped or shredded vegetables, pickles and assorted condiments

Shawarma (Arabic: شاورما‎‎) also spelled shawurma or shawerma, is a Levantine meat preparation, where lamb, chicken, turkey, beef, veal, or mixed meats are placed on a spit (commonly a vertical spit in restaurants), and may be grilled for as long as a day. Shavings are cut off the block of meat for serving, and the remainder of the block of meat is kept heated on the rotating spit. Shawarma can be served on a plate (generally with accompaniments), or as a sandwich or wrap. Shawarma is usually eaten with tabbouleh, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato, and cucumber. Toppings include tahini, hummus, pickled turnips, and amba.

Similar dishes in the region include Turkish döner kebabs and Greek gyros.

Though grilling meat on a skewer has ancient roots in the Eastern Mediterranean with evidence from the Mycenaean Greek and Minoan periods, grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Bursa current-day Turkey. According to some sources, 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 Hadji Iskender.