Bucharest, Romania

Shaorma for lunch



















Every city has their own "the best chili in Texas", or "the best cheesesteaks in Philly", or "the best onion salads in Deluth" (made that up). Bucharest has "the best shaormas in Bucharest". A shaorma is a kind of flat bread filled with meat (either beef, veal, chicken, or lamb), with potatoes, peppers, cabbage, and maybe tomatoes. They usually have a sauce of mayonnaise and hot sauce, garlic sauce, and onions. Usually, when I order one, I usually get it "fara maionesa, cu picant".... without mayonnaise, with hot sauce. You can get it "aici sau la pachet" (here or to go). A shaorma is extremely similar to the doner kebabs in Turkey (I think it is a doner kabab, with maybe more garlic), or kind of similar to a burrito carne/chicken asada, but with a slightly sweet hot sauce,. and some garlic. Anyway, we had a hankerin' for shaorma, so we went to the best place in Bucharest for shaorma...... right across the street from the 5-star Marriot Grand Hotel...... Chicken Staff. When you're in Bucharest, after you've parked your Maibach or limited edition Maserati, then walk on across the street and get yerself a good ol' shaorma. I prefer beef over chicken.

Update on the Shaorma

One of the readers pointed out the arabic origin of the shaorma, and the effect on the street food and the culture in Bucharest. From what I can gather from the web, the food is from middle-eastern arabic origin, and the name "shaorma" appears to be from a turkish origin. For centuries, Romania was under Turkish Rule, followed by other rules, and all of these rules have had an effect in the culture. Likewise, in Romania, there are many internal subcultures and external neighbors , and this is one of the things that makes Romania so vibrant and diverse. But through it all....... subcultures, over-cultures, ruling cultures, living cultures, every day cultures, the Shaorma ties it all together like a big delicious tasteful mixture wrapped up in a simple flat bread. And that's the shaorma in our lives, connecting many many cultures. (Also, during communism, the State controlled all the businesses, so such things as a small business making Shaormas couldnt exist, so in addition to being a food of the people, the shaorma shop is an example of private enterprise at work, a huge change in the landscape over the last 50 years here.)
There are many links for "shaorma" (or other spelling versions). Here is one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawarma




















Drawing on napkin....... view of the shaorma guy.

The meats are on these vertical spits with radiant heaters behind them to roast them. They use these long knives that look like giant bread slicers to cut the meat. Anyway, lunch was good.

About a year ago, seemed like I was eating a shaorma every day almost for lunch... not too many other restaurants in the area where I was. After a while, the girls at the shaorma place could recognize us and knew our preferences. Anyway, you can only eat shaormas every day for so long, then one day you come home and your wife says, "no more shaormas for you.... you smell like a shaorma!" And then I had to start bringing lunch, and only 1 shaorma every week or two. mmmmm...... those were the days............... maybe we'll get one today.....we'll see.