Tribal People Try Kebabs

Every time the tribe has tasted kebabs: 7 videos of first impressions from villagers in rural Punjab, Pakistan, usually Middle Eastern food they have never seen before.

Also covers: kabab, kebabs, kababs, seekh, shawarma, doner, döner, gyro, souvlaki, chapli

What it is

Kebabs are grilled or fried meat, from Turkish döner and shish to the Pakistani seekh and shami. The videos usually pit a foreign version — doner, gyros, shawarma — against the kebabs the tribe grew up with.

What to watch for

This is home ground. The comparison is technical: how the meat is seasoned, whether it is minced or cut, what bread it comes in. Yogurt sauces and pickled cabbage on a doner are new; the meat itself is judged like a neighbour's cooking.

The village comparison

Seekh kebab on a coal fire is a village celebration food. Anything that arrives as a kebab gets held to that standard, and it is a high one.

If you cook it: Mince needs fat — at least twenty per cent — or it falls off the skewer and dries out.

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