Tacos al pastor

Al pastor

A "trompo" of pastor meat
Place of origin	Mexico, Ottoman Empire
Serving temperature	Warm
Main ingredients	Pork meat

Al pastor (from Spanish, lit. In the style of the shepherd), also known as tacos al pastor, is a dish developed in Central Mexico, shawarma spit-grilled meat brought by the Lebanese immigrants to Mexico. Being derived from shawarma, it is also similar to the Turkish döner kebab and the Greek gyro. Although shawarma and döner are usually lamb-based (thus the "shepherd-style" name), gyros and tacos al pastor in Mexico are pork based. In some places of northern Mexico, as in Baja California, this taco is called taco de adobada.

Lebanese immigration to Mexico started in the 19th and early 20th centuries see Lebanese Mexicans. In 1892, the first Lebanese arrived in Mexico from Beirut in French ships to Mexican ports. At that time, Lebanon was not an independent nation; the territory was governed by the Ottoman Empire for more than 400 years, but the empire was collapsing, which influenced the migration of many people. In the 1960s, Mexican born Lebanese migrants began opening their own restaurants, and morphing their heritage into Mexico.

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 in 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.