{"id":233180,"date":"2015-11-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-11-13T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/from-turkey-to-europe-to-san-diego\/"},"modified":"2015-11-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-11-13T08:00:00","slug":"from-turkey-to-europe-to-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/from-turkey-to-europe-to-san-diego\/","title":{"rendered":"From Turkey to Europe to San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>\n<p>The hottest selling fast-food item in Germany has nothing to do with sausages or any type of grub stemming from American franchises. It is instead a sizable serving of slow-cooked meats sliced from vertical spits and swaddled in flatbread with chopped veggies and powerful yogurt-garlic sauce.<!--more--><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1733\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1733\" style=\"width: 201px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-chicken-rotisserie.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1733 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-chicken-rotisserie-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Rotisserie chicken (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 201px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 201\/300;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1733\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotisserie chicken<br \/>(Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Known as d\u00f6ner kebabs and consumed widely by late-night clubbers throughout Holland, Belgium, France and Scandinavia as well, they\u2019re now readily available in a neighborhood near you at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thekebabshop.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Kebab Shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The homegrown San Diego chain captures some of the modern-day street food that Turkish immigrants began introducing to Western Europe decades ago. The d\u00f6ner kebabs, in particular, are a big draw. They were supposedly invented in the early 1970s by a Turk living in Berlin, who began consolidating all the components of a traditional kebab plate into pillowy lavash bread \u2014 the meat, salad and whatever condiments.<\/p>\n<p>Much like a burrito, with one half enveloped securely in butcher paper or foil, they allow consumers to eat a substantial meal while walking, biking or driving.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond its original East Village location, The Kebab Shop has spawned locations in Mission Valley, Little Italy, Mira Mesa, Encinitas and Rancho Bernardo. The menu at each features wraps, sandwiches, plates and boxes spotlighting slices of lamb and beef combined, as well as chicken, salmon or crispier-than-average falafel.<\/p>\n<p>If this is beginning to sound like common Eastern Mediterranean food, it is and it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1732\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1732\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-salad.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1732 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-salad-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Tomato-feta salad with onions and olives (Photo by Frank Sabatini Jr.)\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/225;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tomato-feta salad with onions and olives<br \/>(Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Indeed, you\u2019ll find the usual dishes: creamy hummus in plain and spicy versions; tomato-feta salad with onions and olives dressed in herby vinaigrette; and ground-beef (kofte) shish kebabs accented justly with onions and coriander seeds.<\/p>\n<p>More unique is elbow macaroni salad with pinkish bits of soy bacon. Creamy and somewhat sweet, it strikes a close parallel to versions you\u2019d find on Hawaiian plate lunches.<\/p>\n<p>My favorite side dish is the green lentil salad with walnuts, which offers a pleasant crunch and whispers of bay leaves, garlic and mustard. Consistently, it has tasted exotically Turkish and rustically French at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>As for the starring dish, the d\u00f6ners are doozies in terms of size. Priced at an easy $7.99, they\u2019re packed from end to end with warmly spiced chicken from a vertical rotisserie stacked with sweaty thigh meat. Tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and fresh mint are also tucked inside.<\/p>\n<p>The flatbread casings used for the kebabs resembled those I\u2019ve had in Wiesbaden, Germany some years ago, the city where I first experienced these hefty wraps. The warm, airy bread is thin, without tearing apart as you munch along. Here, the yogurt-garlic sauce is a little less feisty in comparison, but still with enough strength to break up a party if you leave it hanging on your breath.<\/p>\n<p>If opting for the chicken kebab, you end up with char-grilled breast meat instead of the juicier d\u00f6ner-style thigh meat. It costs about 60 cents extra, but it\u2019s still a delicious deal, especially with the support of the garlic sauce and the house-made spicy red sauce, which mingle exceptionally well together.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1731\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1731\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-lamb-and-beef-plate.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1731 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/The-Kebab-Shop-lamb-and-beef-plate.jpg\" alt=\"Lamb and beef plate\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 600px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 600\/450;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1731\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lamb and beef plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Since becoming a regular visitor to the Mission Valley location, a friend and I recently tried the lamb-beef meal plate accompanied by saffron rice and the tomato-feta salad.<\/p>\n<p>We watched the curly ribbons of compressed meat tumbled onto a tray as a cook shaved the coned meat with what looked and sounded like electric shears. The result was tasty gyros sporting precision buzz cuts.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve yet to try the eatery\u2019s Iskender kebab, which features wider strips from the beef-lamb cone, plus tomato sauce, yogurt and a grilled pepper served atop buttered pita bread. The creation dates back a couple hundred years to the Turkish city of Bursa.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-11-at-3.44.09-PM.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1735 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/missionvalleynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Screen-Shot-2015-11-11-at-3.44.09-PM.png\" alt=\"Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 3.44.09 PM\" width=\"256\" height=\"190\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 256px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 256\/190;\" \/><\/a>With classic shawarma sandwiches also in the offing, The Kebab Shop has been lauded multiple times by Zagat and was voted recently as \u201cbest casual food\u201d in Mission Valley News.<\/p>\n<p>Co-founded in 2007 in the East Village by Dutch transplant Tony Farmand, the growing eatery offers consumers at all locations a taste of ancient cultures from various regions throughout the Middle East, fusing them together with modern adaptations done remarkably well.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/em><em> es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press), y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del antiguo San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en <\/em><a href=\"mailto:fsabatini@san.rr.com\"><em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a><em>. <\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Frank Sabatini Jr. The hottest selling fast-food item in Germany has nothing to do with sausages or any type of grub stemming from American franchises. It is instead a sizable serving of slow-cooked meats sliced from vertical spits and swaddled in flatbread with chopped veggies and powerful yogurt-garlic sauce.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":233181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"From Turkey to Europe to San Diego","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11557,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}