Donair

A donair is a variation on the döner kebab. It was originally introduced in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in the early 1970s. A restaurant called King of Donair claims to have been the first to serve this version in 1973. The owners of King of Donair had originally tried selling Greek Gyro sandwiches, but had a hard time selling them so replaced the lamb with beef and the tzatziki with a sweet garlic sauce, thus inventing the Donair. When the owners of King of Donair approached a local printer, Leo Arkelian of Halcraft Printers to design advertising, he suggested the new anglicized spelling, making it unique to the Halifax area.

The meat is sliced from a loaf cooked on a vertical spit, made from a combination of ground beef, flour or bread crumbs, and various spices. The sweet sauce is made from evaporated milk, sugar, vinegar, and garlic. The meat and sauce are served rolled in a flat-bread pita with diced tomato and onion. The donair is very popular throughout the Atlantic provinces of Canada, and is also available in some other areas of the country like Alberta and Southern Ontario, with many fast food pizza restaurants also featuring donairs on the menu. Some also offer a donair pizza featuring all of the donair ingredients served on a pizza crust. A Donair dipping sauce may also be included.

Variations

In Atlantic Canada, donair meat is used in a variety of dishes including donair egg rolls (an egg roll casing stuffed with donair meat), donair calzones/panzerottis, donair poutine (french fries topped with cheese curds, donair meat and donair sauce, gravy, or a combination of both), donair subs and donair burgers (both sandwiches use donair meat as a base and donair sauce as a condiment, with optional additions such as diced tomatoes and onions).

In the summer of 2008, after numerous cases of E. coli related food poisoning due to the consumption of undercooked donair meat in Alberta, the federal government came out with a set of guidelines for the preparation of donairs. The principal guideline was that the meat should be cooked at least twice: once on the spit, and then grilled as the donair is being prepared. Many Atlantic Canadian establishments already did this; however, Albertan restaurants, recently introduced to donairs by a large number of Atlantic Canadians looking for work there, often omitted the grilling step.^[1]

Pride

The existence and Atlantic origin of the donair is a point of pride for many Atlantic Canadians.

See also

• List of sandwiches

References

1. ^ "Rethinking the late-night donair". Nova Scotia Chronicle Herald. 2008-11-28.