One thing I miss most from my student days in the UK is the food. Greasy fish and chips, drenched in vinegar; fresh hot doughnuts oozing with sweet strawberry jam; soft scones with dollops of cornish cream; rhubarb crumble drowning in custard. And last but not least, who can resist a big, fat doner kebab. I always preferred mine big, with ALL the salad and ALL the sauces. My favourite kebab shop in London was one naughtily named Lolita in Paddington. It had the doner kebab TO DIE FOR.
Yeah, we have the so-called local "kebab" chain restaurant - Kyros Kebab. Guys, that's just a TRAVESTY to the fraternity of kebabs! The few times that I gave it a try (mainly due to lack of any other choices) it was always dry, stale and utterly DISGUSTING.
Anyway, everyone knew how UNHEALTHY those kebabs were. I mean, insurance proposal forms should have an additional box to tick - "How many kebabs do you normally eat in a typical week?" - and those who've eaten a big amount should pay THROUGH THEIR TEETH to get covered! Eating more than your fair share of doner kebabs should lead you needing a doner of another type - HEART DONOR! And they always CLAIM that it's supposed to be "lamb". Errmm... WHICH PART of a lamb is it? Surely tastes really different from the normal lamb that I also happily consume.. lamb chops, lamb shank, lamb stew, lamb beriyani etc. I've got to admit that NONE of them even REMOTELY taste like the "lamb" kebab that I love.
So, like the Radiohead classic, I said NO SURPRISES when the results of a survey of kebabs in UK found that they contained "...shocking levels of salt, fat and calories..". But what did SHOCK me was that from 494 samples of kebabs, six were found to contain PORK!! And what's worse, two of the six were claimed to be HALAL!! So there were those who thought they ordered a kebab, but got a keBABI instead! I am truly dissappointed.
And I wonder how many of the other 488 samples which actually were lamb didn't turn out to be halal after all. So, to my brothers and sisters in the UK, please do make sure before you buy your next kebab. I always made sure that the shop was indeed halal, and the men working there were indeed Muslims before I felt comfortable buying.
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3 comments:
i was in Europe winter baru ni..
Doner Kebab was all over..
senang jgak nak cari makan..
is Kyros still exists in Malaysia..hmm..
hi dzu..
yeah kebab shops can be found all over europe.. but they're not all halal.. dont just assume that since it's an 'arabic' type of food then it must be halal!.. i remember back during my A-level days in Northampton.. there was this kebab shop, and we asked the man, "is your kebab halal???".. and he replied "...it is makruuuh.. the lamb is slaughtered but not by muslims"?!?!?!?!
I remember that Kebab shop. I think it was Dave's Kebab down Barrack Road. Although for argument's sake, in the quran it does state that if it is slaughtered by 'people of the book' then it is halal. So on his part, he might just be right. This view is shared by many scholars including our ex-Mufti Perlis. :-)
Anyway, I've always prefered shawerma to doners though. The shawerma with white (garlic?) sauce at Halal Restaurant scattered around London was just yummy. I do however like to snack on doner once in awhile. Usually bought from not so clean muslim takeaways also offering whole pizzas for three pounds fifty.
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