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In the Moment
My husband and I came to Mississauga 4-1/2 years ago and began our donair history, geography and home economics education.
The GTA (Greater Toronto Area) is a melting pot of every culture so we assumed that there would be donair shops here and were surprised to find none.
Zach's Famous Donair Emporium
In 1995 the first Zachs Famous Donair Restaurant opened in Edmonton, Alberta.
This restaurant featured a delicious line of a new product called the "donair" which is made with spiced beef garnished with onions, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, hot peppers and special "donair" sauce served on warmed pita bread. The public responded with overwhelming approval to this exciting new taste.
Zachs is a family run business and we consistently strive to create a friendly family atmosphere for our valued customers.
Queen of Donairs
A couple of weeks ago, someone posted to the Toronto LiveJournal community, asking about where to get Nova Scotia style donairs. After we collectively determined that there is no place in Toronto to get this much-loved street food, I fessed up and admitted that I have a copy of the original recipe created and marketed by the chain King of Donairs. And despite encouragement to start my own donair stand here in Toronto, I’d still rather just make the things at home.
Why do Canadians Eat Donairs?
There is a meat dish which in slightly different forms is widely eaten in the Eastern Mediterranean as well, in recent years, in many other countries. (See the Wikipedia articles Döner kebab and ドネル ケバブ.) In the United States, it is usually called gyro(s), from Greek γύρος, sometimes pronounced [dʒaiɹow] according to its spelling, with the 's' taken to be the plural morpheme, sometimes [jiɹos] as in Greek. In Canada, the same dish is almost always known as doner, from Turkish döner, also spelled donair. A few restaurants in Ontario seem to call it gyros, but here in British Columbia, and in my experience in Alberta as well, gyros is virtually never used. This is true even in restaurants run by Greeks. A new place specializing in doner just opened here in Prince George. The owners are Greek,but they use the term donair on their menu and even in the name of their restaurant. I have been wondering for a long time why it is that this dish almost always goes by its Greek name in the United States but by its Turkish name in Canada.
Germans go for doner kebabs - Shawarma outstrips sausages, fries as the country’s No. 1 fast food
Germans go for doner kebabs - Shawarma outstrips sausages, fries as the country’s No. 1 fast food
By The Associated Press
Sat. Apr 10 - 4:53 AM
BERLIN — Forget about bratwurst, currywurst and other kinds of sausages — doner kebab, or shawarma, has overtaken traditional German fast food as the country’s favourite snack on the go.
First brought to Berlin by Turkish immigrants in the 1970s, the grilled meat snack that comes wrapped in a pita bread with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions and different dressings, is now being sold everywhere in Germany from the Baltic Sea to the Bavarian Alps.
DMBLog on Donairs
My favorite place for donairs, (and the best I’ve been able to find in Calgary), is A & A Foods at 1401 – 20 Ave NW. Everything is very fresh, the donair meat is seasoned perfectly and is exceptionally moist. The donairs come in three sizes: small, medium and large. The small size is adequate for most people and is equivalent to what is considered a “large” everywhere else.
Donairs – What those Funky Canadians eat
For anyone who has ever watched the Trailer Park Boys, you’ll hear constant references to donairs and the King of Donair. Well I had to do a little research and I discovered an incredibly delicious sandwich/wrap. The sandwich is really a combination of a bastardized donar kebab and a gyro with a very funky sauce. The meat is rather simple to prepare – like a meatloaf.
A Donair Road Trip to Milton, Ontario
So on a crispy January afternoon, this guy and myself, along with this guy and another guy who doesn't have a blog, piled into the car drove off to scenic Milton, Ontario (I heard it has a Go Train station) to find out if "Halifax Donair and Pizza" are indeed slinging authentic east-coast donairs.
The View from In Here
Now, for those not from Queen's or Halifax, you may wonder, what's a donair? As a quick overview, it's slices of this meat concoction shaved off a stick (beef, bread crumbs, spices), seared, topped with tomatoes, onions, donair sweet sauce (which makes or breaks the donair, personally) and all wrapped in a pita WAY too small for the amount it has to hold. Consequently, eating it is a mess, but is it oh so delicious (especially after a night of drinking)!
Beer and News And you will know us by our trail of empties…
A quick story about east coast Donairs.