The British answer to the late-night drunken pizza order seems to be the kabab shop. These things are everywhere, possibly more predominant than burger joints, and have even more questionable quality products. Almost without exception, I have never seen a crowd outside a kebab shop at anytime other than late on a Friday or Saturday night. There is one, however, that is fairly near my flat and happened to be the source of my very first meal in the UK and I happened to swing by around dinner time and grab dinner to go. The food is tasty, the floors are clean and the prices are reasonable which makes for a good take away in my book.
In any case, kebab shops usually offer something called a doner kebab which, depending on where you get it, involves a thick flour tortilla, shavings from a roast lamb, and then some or all of the following: salad, chili sauce, chips (that’s “french fries” for the Americans in the room), mayonnaise and some other random items. The most interesting thing about this whole process is that the lamb is on an upright skewer rotating in a half open oven and as the day progresses, more and more is shaved off for the various patron’s kebabs. By the end of the day, it’s been shaved down to the skewer and a new cut of meat is put on in the morning.
The thing is, these things are quite big and I’ve never been there in the morning when they open (hmm, kebab for breakfast….) but I have this somewhat repulsive image of a full sheep on a skewer in the morning that just gets wheedled down to meat bits by the end of the day.
And with that lovely mental picture… perhaps I’ve just discovered why kebab shops only appear to hungry drunk people.
Meaghan Fitzgerald is a marketer and entrepreneur building and growing consumer and gaming products and experiences. A Silicon Valley native, she started her first company, DormWise, in 2006 which she later sold in 2009. Meaghan spent 7 years in London in early stage consumer startups, two years at Xbox as a product marketer for Minecraft, and is currently the head of product marketing for VR experiences at Facebook and Oculus. Meaghan writes here about business, technology, gaming, and marketing. She has been named a top
Meaghan,
I absolutely love this post… my sister lives in Greece and I told her about your site. I have to check back on her and make sure she reads your post. Just because she is actually living in the Greek culture. That doesn’t necessarily have a negative meaning, but…. they definitely enjoy the night life!!