mutant shawarma

Peter Schroepfer, a.k.a. Oranckay to friends and enemies alike, accosted me on Twitter with a "Pictures, please!" when I announced that I planned on making chicken shawarmas for dinner. Well, sir, here are the pics.

A closeup of the better-made one:




These are, of course, mutant shawarmas-- they've got home-made tzatziki on them, and the tzatziki has dill in it, so that's two counts of mutant violation right there.

But damn, they tasted good.

What you see in the pictures:

1. naan that's been painted with a mixture of olive oil, salt, and garlic, then fried in a skillet to get the oil into the bread (otherwise, the naan would have ripped when curled into the wrap shape)

2. a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce

3. chicken sliced thinly to simulate its having been sawed off from a rotating spit, spiced with my seven-fold combo of salt, pepper, paprika, red chili pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder; the chicken was fried in olive oil on medium heat and tasted nothing like real shawarma-style chicken, but it was good all the same

4. minced Italian tomato from the local Costco-- very red and juicy

5. thin slices of jalapeño, seeds and all (seed removal is for wusses)

6. Président brand feta, a Costco standard

7. home-made mutant tzatziki: Greek yogurt, mayo, dill, salt, pepper, olive oil, peeled and finely minced cucumbers, a few drops of vinegar (didn't have lemon juice), and a wee bit of sweetener to take the edge off the tartness

8. sriracha, standing in for the red sauce that normally goes with a shawarma

All in all, it was nowhere near the real thing, but I downed both sandwiches with gusto. You normal folks might have been able to handle only one such sandwich: either the size or the heat would have killed you. I replaced my own stomach with a pickup truck's gas tank long ago, so I have no problems in terms of storage capacity or heat tolerance.

You might be wondering about the left-hand shawarma pictured above, the one with the ripped naan. That problem wasn't hard to handle: I sliced the bread straight across, following the rip, and ate that section as if it were a mini-sandwich. Then I ate the remainder.


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