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Kebab (kabab in India/Pakistan, also spelled kebap, kebob, kabob) means grilled meat in Turkish. There are many varieties of kebab and the term means different things in different countries.
European kebab
In Turkey and the rest of Europe, kebab is usually made of lamb and beef, although chicken and fish can be used for some styles, and pork is also commonly used by non-Muslim sellers. There are different variants of kebab:
European:
- Döner Kebab - lit. "rotating kebab", sliced lamb or chicken loaf slowly roasted on a rotating spit
- Samak Kebab - grilled fish shish kebab
- Shish Kebab - grilled cubes of meat on a stick
- Shish Tawook or Shish Taouk - yogurt marinated chicken grilled on a stick
- Kofte Kebab or Shish Kofte - minced lamb meatballs with herbs, often including parsley and mint, on a stick, grilled.
Kebabs are normally served in pita bread with salad. Take-out kebab restaurants are common in some parts of Europe. Döner Kebab is said to be the best-selling fast food in Germany; it is usually referred to as just "Döner" there. Enterprising take-away operators (catering generally to drunken post-pub revellers) sometimes put kebab meat on a pizza, producing a culturally-dubious "kebabpizza".
Alternate names for (döner) kebab include gyros in Greece (which is usually pork and lamb) and shwarma in the Middle East and North Africa.
American kebab
In the United States, a kebab is a stick with small cubes of any kind of meat or fowl and vegetables that is roasted on a grill. European kebab is best known by its Greek name gyros or as shwarma.
American varieties of kebab include:
- Beef kebab
- Chicken kebab
- Tofu kebab
- Vegetable kebab
- Turkey kebab
American kebabs consist of meat and vegetables held together with a wooden skewer and then grilled. Vegetables typically used include eggplant, tomato, bell pepper, onion and mushrooms.
Except in New York City, take-out shish kebab is almost unknown in the US; however, take-out gyros are quite popular.