What's channel 595? It's not QVC is it?

Topical -- Friday night was Rob's leaving do, so the whole Empeg massive (minus Hugo, on holiday, and Roger, on an early flight the next morning) got some fine pints of Ruddles in in the Eagle, followed by a large slightly Greek meal and vast amounts of cheap-and-cheerful plonk at Cambridge institution the Eraina...

Peter

Playboy TV.

Mmmm... it's been months since I had a good kebab.

wfaulk: Playboy TV.
genixia: Mmmm... it's been months since I had a good kebab.

Heh, this has been the week for interesting juxtapositions in flat mode replies, hasn't it?

well, I got to it late, but the answer was driving 270 miles home from Leek (exactly - where the **** is Leek?) to Livingston in time to look after the kids and cats so SWMBO could go out on t'piss.

Was alright - watched Barry and Carry, Green Wing and The L Word and had a couple of nice beers.

Sadly then had to write a proposal for a global multinational (I always do that better after a couple of beers...apparently) and I'm still working on it now.

Just make sure you don't start writing "Yoooure my besst freeend you know. youre wiicked. want to go for a kebab?"

Okay, I'll bite. Where is Leek?

East of Stoke on Trent. Near nowhere. Not very exotic. Definitely not happening. I had warnings that I should not stop or open windows in certain villages near there.

And the Holiday Inn I had was grotty too:-)

So what's the deal with kebabs in the states? Are they as good as the ones over here?

I'd say better, but that depends on where you are in the US. There are several places in this country where I find the local cuisine scary. That, and good is very subjective.

I was told by a Greek restauranteur (Called Solomon Solomonades), who operates your side of the Pennines, that the kebab that we have is after the Turkish, not the Greek style: The Greek has solid chunks of meat and a larger fat content.
I've only had a kebab in Canada, but, as I've described, it was very different to those that we are familiar with.

Kebabs (or, as we usually spell it here in the States, kabobs) aren't wildly common here, so anything you'll find isn't going to fit some common perception of a kabob. That said, the ones I've had have been tasty, even if they've varied wildly. On the other hand, Boxer says that they're large chunks of meat over here, which raises the question of what they're like over there.

Oh, I see. The Wikipedia article on kebabs is actually very useful. To reiterate, what you call kebabs we call gyros or (much less commonly) shwarma. What we call kabobs you call shish kebabs, which is certainly a term we're aware of here, and would be a synonym.

You haven't even started talking about Indian kebabs yet, and there's more than one type of those...

A quick brain's trust in the office came up with: Rather like a closely packed rather dry, finely ground meatloaf.

Oh, well, that's different than a gyros. I've never seen one here that has ground meat in it. Small cubes (like maybe a quarter inch) to sizable hunks (maybe like and inch and a half by an inch by half an inch) would be much more common. On the other hand, I almost always get the chicken and not the meat-on-a-stick (which I think is reconstituted ground beef and lamb) -- I think that's shwarma -- but I think it's still served in similarly sized chunks to the chicken.

Oh, wait. Maybe you were describing the shwarma. It's not loose ground meat in the sandwich, right, but cut into chunks?

If anyone's interested here's my recipe for Shami Kebabs (an Indian thing):

1lb lamb mince
1/4lb pre cooked channa dal (split chick peas)
3 cloves garlic
1" grated ginger
salt
chillies (dried or green to taste)
handful of chopped coriander
garam masala

egg for frying

cook the mince, garlic and ginger with a little oil until the meat has browned and liquid evaporated, add all the other ingredients and process to a pate in a food mixer when cool enough. Shape it into little patties and keep in freezer or fridge until you're ready to fry them.

Coat in beaten egg and shallow fry for a couple of minutes each side, they're quite fragile so be careful when turning, drain on kitchen paper and eat.

They tend to come more as slices, than chunks.

Cooked on the vertical stick, not eaten on it, right?

try this. It doesn't support the difference between Greek and Turkish cuisine that I started with!

I like that

Some years ago, I was standing outside an Indian Restaurant in San Francisco, when a car pulled out of the traffic and screeched to a halt: The driver leaned across and said: "Hey, Man you don't want to eat there it's f***ing c**p - if you want a decent curry, you want to go to the Gaylord on Ghiradelli.

So doing, we entered the same, some time later, without a booking: To be greeted, with Good Evening Mr. Solomon, your window table is ready for you, leading us past a waiting queue.

It occurred that the Manager, the Gaylord being a world wide chain, had just transferred from their Manchester operation, where I had had lunch every week.

So, maybe the difference between Indian cuisine in our two countries is not as pronounced as we might have thought!

Very, very, cool.

I would describe the average UK donner kebab meat as spongy. I doubt whether I would every eat a "normal" UK donner kebab if I was sober.

The only UK donner kebab I have ever had that didn't have the spongy texture is from Murdocks on Division Street in Sheffield. Instead of reconstitued spongy stuff it is thick slices of roast lamb that they use instead (still heated on the vertical stick like everywhere else).

I happily ate Murdocks kebabs when sober and they were also open until 3am (and a handy five minutes walk from the uni engineering department).

Don't know if they are still there, this was ten years ago now...

Not my favourite Sheffield take-away though, that was Nibbles Pizza in Broomhill. Best pizza I have ever had, I lived off it for several years.

voila