The Kebab
Created | Updated Mar 19, 2004
It's gone midnight, you've sunk a fair few pints under your belt, and you turn out of a pub/club and stumble into the night air. Staggering on the pavement the world re-adjusts itself and you come to a sudden but very concrete realization: you are hungry. No, in fact, you're starving. Looking along the High Street at the butter-yellow lights and bright neon signs of the various takeaway outlets, you don't really need to consider your options. You're already salivating. And you know that at this point there is only one possible choice of munchy-crunching cuisine: you need a kebab.
So why should this be?
Well, 'Kebab' is derived from the Arabic for 'donkey' and the recipe was brought to England in 1580 by the ship's cook on the Golden Hind, Mustafa Ffypps, following Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe which had been begun in 1577 in order to give the Spanish a stuffing and nick all their Inca gold. Kebabs were served up to the Virgin Queen and her courtier favourite Robert Dudley, the Earl of Essex, when they came to divvy up the spoils at Tilbury, on Drake's return. However, at that time the Elizabethan's more than likely slapped the fried meat between some form of unleavened bread, say a flapjack or a pancake, rather than the now common pitta bread favoured by takeaway traditionalists. The kebab slowly grew in popularity amongst cuisine aficionados, Oliver Cromwell and Dr. Johnson - both renowned for their gourmet palates - being keen devotees of the snack during the 17th and 18th Centuries respectively, until the kebab became synonymous with a good time and alcohol.
And so, in this way, the kebab (in a similar fashion to the love of Indian curries - chicken Biryani is the modern roast dinner) has entered British popular culture in the way that traditional - but still foreign - European cuisine has not. I can't imagine going out for the night, having a skin-full then getting the overwhelming and desperate need to go for a slice of Paella. No way, it's not going to happen. Not even if I was blathered after sixteen pints of 'Old Badger: 25% cask ale' on the streets of Madrid - I'd still go hunting for a kebab shop. And find one. The Americans nudge their way into the post-drinking food game, as they nudge their way into most things - greasy burgers and spicy Fried Chicken being their two big assets. Let's face it, if there's one thing the Americans know about it's calories. But I've been there and I've done that, and ultimately it's just cheap thrill, no matter how finger-licking good it might taste at the time. In the end I always come home.
So, to get back to my initial question, why should this be? Why should the kebab assume such importance following a decent bout of binge drinking? Well here's the science bit. It's as simple as this: the kebab serves a basic and fundamental human need for salt and grease following the heavy consumption of alcohol. Don't fight it, don't deny it, just get yourself up to the Formica counter, think about having that polystyrene box of delight in your hand, and read with pleasure the big black plastic board with its white stick-on letters, while you come to that finest of inebriated choices. Lamb or chicken?
Give grease a chance.
For more tasty information about kebabs and curry online you might like to try: http://www.btinternet.com/~doner.ride
http://rubymurray.com
23/02/2004
So why should this be?
Well, 'Kebab' is derived from the Arabic for 'donkey' and the recipe was brought to England in 1580 by the ship's cook on the Golden Hind, Mustafa Ffypps, following Sir Francis Drake's circumnavigation of the globe which had been begun in 1577 in order to give the Spanish a stuffing and nick all their Inca gold. Kebabs were served up to the Virgin Queen and her courtier favourite Robert Dudley, the Earl of Essex, when they came to divvy up the spoils at Tilbury, on Drake's return. However, at that time the Elizabethan's more than likely slapped the fried meat between some form of unleavened bread, say a flapjack or a pancake, rather than the now common pitta bread favoured by takeaway traditionalists. The kebab slowly grew in popularity amongst cuisine aficionados, Oliver Cromwell and Dr. Johnson - both renowned for their gourmet palates - being keen devotees of the snack during the 17th and 18th Centuries respectively, until the kebab became synonymous with a good time and alcohol.
And so, in this way, the kebab (in a similar fashion to the love of Indian curries - chicken Biryani is the modern roast dinner) has entered British popular culture in the way that traditional - but still foreign - European cuisine has not. I can't imagine going out for the night, having a skin-full then getting the overwhelming and desperate need to go for a slice of Paella. No way, it's not going to happen. Not even if I was blathered after sixteen pints of 'Old Badger: 25% cask ale' on the streets of Madrid - I'd still go hunting for a kebab shop. And find one. The Americans nudge their way into the post-drinking food game, as they nudge their way into most things - greasy burgers and spicy Fried Chicken being their two big assets. Let's face it, if there's one thing the Americans know about it's calories. But I've been there and I've done that, and ultimately it's just cheap thrill, no matter how finger-licking good it might taste at the time. In the end I always come home.
So, to get back to my initial question, why should this be? Why should the kebab assume such importance following a decent bout of binge drinking? Well here's the science bit. It's as simple as this: the kebab serves a basic and fundamental human need for salt and grease following the heavy consumption of alcohol. Don't fight it, don't deny it, just get yourself up to the Formica counter, think about having that polystyrene box of delight in your hand, and read with pleasure the big black plastic board with its white stick-on letters, while you come to that finest of inebriated choices. Lamb or chicken?
Give grease a chance.
For more tasty information about kebabs and curry online you might like to try: http://www.btinternet.com/~doner.ride
http://rubymurray.com
23/02/2004
