SHAWARMA: BEYOND BORDERS

Chicken Meat

A great innovation of man on culinary and a all-in-one snack/meal, that is, protein, carbohydrates, and vegetable are all in one dish, this is the “Shawarma”.

           Shawarma’s definition has become very broad. In it’s of place origin, Middle East, shawarma is called kebab which is a sandwich that usually eaten as snack. While in other countries that adapted this dish, specifically in the Philippines, shawarma can mean a sandwich for snack, or a meal, “shawarma rice”. But, in general, for a food to be called shawarma, it has to have meat, pudding, a source of carbohydrates and some vegetables.

             According to U. Awak (2008), Turkey was the place of origin of shawarma. Turkish migration to the rest of the Middle East has spread the popularity of shawarma. Since most Arabs go camping or night picnicking in deserts during Thursdays, shawarma has become a fast food for it only needs a little time to prepare. It reaches the Philippines through the Khaleb shawarma company and was eventually followed by Leylam, and other shawarma stands because of its relative success.

            Sharwarma has captured the tastes of the people around the world because of it flexibility to blend to the culture of the people who has adopted it. The tastes have been diversified to accommodate the wants of the people. For example, to those people who wants there food a bit sweet, a sweetener is being added. Also, the recipes and ingredients had also been modified to suit the culture, belief, and social status of people. For instance, in the Philippines, since chicken meat is more expensive than beef, in terms of the meet you get from it, then beef is used in making shawarma. Another instance would be the use of rice instead of flatbread because Filipinos are rice-eaters.

        During my stays Saudi Arabia in the past 10 years, I have familiarized myself with the taste of Sharwarma which is closed to the original one. Saudi shawarma tastes sour, salty and spicy (optional). Sometimes, the sourness and saltiness is caused pickles and garlic mayonnaise put in it. But, according to Ahmad, a Turkish shawarma seller whom we always buy from in Saudi Arabia,” marination of the chicken is the key for taste.” The chicken alone can cover the taste of the whole shawarma.

            Me and my brother tried to make a shawarma of our own and here’s how we did it; firstly, instead of grilling the unmarinated chicken, we fried it and after it the French fries was next. Then, we chopped the vegetables to tiny bits and prepare the pita bread (a kind of flatbread), which can be bought in any supermarket and was being coated in one side with garlic mayonnaise. Lastly, we put the fries, chicken and the veggies as the fillings to the pita bread. After all that, we tasted our very own creation and find out that we could only taste the garlic mayonnaise that we put.

Beef shawarma

            During last summer, I finally tasted, for the first time, the Filipino version of shawarma. The taste was very different from that of the original one. I was disappointed on how they create the taste through only the use of some sauce like barbeque sauce, mustard and mayonnaise which give sour and sweet tastes. I can’t distinguish which one I’ve eaten was the beef and the excessive use of spices like onion gave it a strong flavor, so strong that it would stick to your mouth throughout the day and according Neil Padura, a customer that was eating shawarma with me said, “The flavor comes from the sauce” has But, I realized that day that maybe it is because this taste is more favorable for the majority of the Filipinos.

          

            There are reasons why shawarma sellers in the uses the sauce and spices to flavor the shawarma. One reason is that beef is expensive, so they have to maximize the use of other ingredients other than beef to make their shawarma look full and, since beef is minimal quantity, we would not taste much of it. Another reason is that sauces take less time to do than marinating the beef. Sauces take only few minutes to put compared to a day of marinating the beef. The last reason would be the profit that they would gain since the ingredients here are more expensive compared to Saudi Arabia that has subsidies on their food products.

             

Even though Saudi Arabia’s shawarma is not the original form of shawarma, it is still the closest one to the original that I’ve tasted. Since, their difference is only the use of hummus and because of this I would make this as the basis of my description of the original shawarma.

Pita Bread

The ingredients of the original shawarma are pita bread, grilled marinated chicken, tomato and cucumber, garlic mayonnaise and French fries. The pita bread serves as the wrapper of the fillings and as base of the taste since it has no flavor. The grilled marinated chicken should be cooked almost “well done” since it’s the taste carrier and the heart of shawarma. The tomatoes and cucumber are put for the reason of balance in nutrition and they don’t affect flavor for they are fresh and not cooked. The garlic mayonnaise makes you eat more and more shawarma because it enhances your appetite. And, the French fries are for adding crispness on the shawarma when one bites it.

On the other hand, Filipino shawarma ingredients are grilled beef, pita bread, green tomato, onions, mayonnaise and a hot sauce. The grilled beef is relatively bland and is small in quantity. The pita bread, like what the original shawarma’s use of it, is the base and wrapper. The onions and tomato, unlike the veggies of the original, gives flavor, for the former, spiciness, and for the latter, sourness. The sauce gives most of its flavor though spiciness is optional.

There are two shawarma stalls that I had visited namely; the Leylam Shawarma stall and the Shawarma sandwich stall. They have things in common and also difference. Tthey are common on the use on onion and green tomato, use of pita bread, wrapping styles (the wrapper used is plastic) and their taste are quite identical, which is sweet, sour and spicy (optional). But, they differ on the color of sauces since Leylam has a brown-colored sauce, while the Shawarma sandwich stall’s sauce is yellowish. They also differ on their claims on where the flavor of their shawarma came from. The Leylam shawarma seller told me that the flavor of their shawarma was Turkish-influenced. While, the shawarma sandwich stall claimed that theirs are influenced by Persia. There last difference is that Leylam has “shawarma rice” the other has none.

The influence of the Philippines to shawarma doesn’t end on the tastes and ingredients. The Filipino shawarma sellers, specifically Leylam, also change its function from merely as snack to meal or a snack. Instead of making the shawarma into a sandwich, they mixed the, supposed to be, fillings into rice and make more like a fried rice. More Filipinos, including me, likes more their shawarma rice than their beef shawarma because the strong flavor suit more for rice than bread since the rice neutralizes the strong flavor of their sauce.

“Shawarma rice” has the ingredients namely; green piece, carrots, rice, meat, egg (optional), soy sauce and the sauces added to the beef shawarma. The veggies are for balance nutrition and since the meat is still in small quantity, the egg can give more protein. The rice is the perfect base for the strong flavor of the sauces. The soy sauce and the other sauces still have the same flavor but it fits more perfectly to rice than bread.

The reasons why people prefer “rice shawarma” than beef shawarma are; one, it can satisfy hunger far better than the beef shawarma and they have the same price which is worth it. Another is the reason that the flavor of the rice shawarma is milder than that of the beef shawarma that make lose one’s appetite. Another reason is that rice shawarma can either be a meal or snack, while the beef shawarma is suitable only for snacks. The last one is that since Filipinos are rice-eating people, then we would obviously choose the rice than the bread.

Shawarma did not only become famous in the Middle East but in other countries such as the Philippines. Shawarma is still new to us but still we embrace it like it is our own. My uncle Amado Base, who is an avid eater of shawarma and was here, in the Philippines, for vacation said “What I only miss in Saudi is the shawarma.” This only shows the flexibility of this dish that it can adapt to any culture or belief of people. Shawarma has become a global phenomenon that transcends border, race, and culture. Well, since I’ll not be going back to Saudi anymore, I guess I would be sticking to the shawarma rice here and imagine only the taste of the original shawarma that I have been used to in the last 10 years.

Bibliography:

Awak, Urang. Shawarma, the Middle East Sandwich, Sinabis(Bahrain) Daily Photo. Online, Internet. 

            Available URL: http://sanabisdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/10/lebanese-shawarma.html