Guest post from "The Travelling Kebab"

For those that haven't been to the exciting metropolis of Adelaide, you won't know that the humble kebab (otherwise known as the 'Yiros') is up there with square white bread and vegemite at the top of the list of essential daily food requirements.

Featuring on every street corner, in every workplace cafeteria and food hall, the Yiros is traditionally created by close relatives of Con the Fruiterer, all indistinguishable by their matching year-round Movember efforts. (Corporal Kebab, I have business cards if you would like to discuss growing technique).

On Jetty Street in Glenelg, there is the upmarket establishment of Souvlaki Bros - Charcoal Yiros, from which I choose a Cypriot Yiros aka Kebab with grilled Haloumi Cheese:

Presentation:

This Yiros is handed to you in a foil-lined paper bag for heat retention and is wrapped in the standard grease-proof paper. It was not very tightly rolled, nor was it toasted (! shock, horror!) but it did not fall apart or make a lot of mess. No greasy fingers at the end, either. (8/10)

Size:

At $11.00, the Cypriot was more expensive than the standard Yiros at $8.00 but it was still a good value and well-proportioned lunch. (8/10)

Health Factor:

I now draw your attention to the 'Charcoal Yiros' part of the name. Instead of the vertical towers of processed meat that is usually used in kebabs, Souvlaki Bros have horizontal spits turning over glowing red coals. The lamb (I had lamb) still highly resembled lamb, not processed stuff and wasn't fatty at all. And, because it is constantly grilling, they did not have to re-fry in a little pan. Thumbs up! Lots of fresh, crisp lettuce, tomato, onion and LOTS of chopped parsley made this a very healthy lunch. The grilled haloumi cheese was far superior to grated cheddar and must be tried if you ever get the chance. Sufficient amount of very garlic sauce didn't detract from health factor. (8/10)

Overall:

I haven't had a kebab for so long that I can't remember the last time but this was a great meal. Compared to the standard WA kebab establishment offerings, I think I will have to wait until I go back to Adelaide to try one again. By the way, the picture above is from the Souvlaki Bros website and does, in fact, look pretty much like my lunch. (9/10)

Chicken Kebab with Cheese

Grasshoppers, you will be happy to know that FOODCOURTGURU is back from his 2 week hiatus and ready to review.

Today's first pearl to be cast is a brief commentary on the growth of prices in the West Perth food court relative to the growth of the share price of the averge West Perth based resources company.

It would appear that the "Point of Unreasonable Exploitation" has recently been reached where food court businesses are now blatantly attempting to profiteer from the resources boom by charging over the top prices for their wares. This point is well illustrated by recent reviews on this blog where it can be seen that a burger at Jandakot costs $5.50 while a similar burger from the West Perth food court will cost up to $9.50. No apparent quality difference and no better service. Very disappointing.

Today's choice of chicken kebab with cheese ($7.90) was a return to the roots of the Kebab Thursday philosophy. This meal was chosen to refresh my memory as to what the yardstick is all about.

Presentation: Kebabs always fare around the middle of the road here due to the limited amount you can really do with a kebab. This particular kebab was not tightly rolled and proved difficult to eat in the end. It also had a few too many greasy windows for my liking. (6/10)

Size: Always good value for money. The more you pay the more you get - kebab with the lot will give you a lot but also costs a lot. (7/10)

Health factor: Despite the recently posted sign at the kebab shop suggesting the the chicken is low fat I am not convinced. Perhaps chicken is low fat but the bullet shaped hunk of lightly coloured stuff they put on your kebab certainly does not look or feel low fat. (6/10)

Overall: Like a conversation with an old friend, the chicken kebab with cheese brings back lots of memories and is comforting in a non-homo-erotic kind of way. Today's refreshing of the kebab yardstick will be well remembered. (7/10)

Kebabzzbar - Chicken Kebab with the Lot - Take two!

Earlier this month, I had a chicken kebab from Kebababzzbar (link). It wasn't overly impressive. This week, I had another one, everything almost exactly the same, except for the sauce (I had satay and garlic sauce this time). The only other difference was the server. This time I had Short Girl. In the grand world of kebab making, not only does the quality of the meat, the freshness of the salad all account for the overall goodness of the kebab, but the server making the kebab for you plays an important roll. A little bit too much salad here, a few too many olives, too few jalapeños and the flavour profile of the kebab changes.

Short Girl is very proficient at making the kebab, you order, and she doesn't need to confirm for the third time that you do in fact want lettuce on your "kebab with the lot". You get the lot. She confirms the amount of jalapeños, and the fact that you do want olives, green pepper, and cucumber, but the rest is THE LOT. This is a great boon in the ordering process. It means you can say a kebab with the lot, and continue talking to Corporal Kebab or foodcourtguru all whilst being served and not worrying about having to answer "do you want cheese on this?".

The other really good thing about Short Girl is the wrapping of the kebab. You may remember that last time, my kebab was falling out the bottom, and not wrapped very well. Short Girl obviously has strong wrists from day after day of kebab wrapping, and she knows exactly how tightly to wrap it without either food falling out the end because it's wrapped too tightly, or having big gaps of air with holes due to it being wrapped too loose.


Overall: The stock standard kebab that I've come to expect from kebabzzbar. A solid 8/10

Winner: Kebab, of course

Kebabbzzbar - Chicken kebab with the lot

This is the foodcourt meal by which all others are compared. Reliable, faithful, consistent. A good midday meal that will keep you going until dinner.

This is my standard kebab. The ingredients, in order of application are pita bread, hommus, tabouli, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, onion, capsicum, olives, extra jalopenos, chicken, and finished with an egg. To that is added garlic sauce, barbeque sauce and hot chilli sauce.

Quality salad ingredients are important in a kebab. The hommus is tasty without being too vinegary; the greens are fresh and crisp. A nice touch is that the olives are not the flavourless sliced black Spanish variety which seem to pop up everywhere - instead they serve up tasty kalamatas.

This particular kebab was done just right, except for being a little light on in the sauce department. Otherwise all the key factors were there - good quantity of meat, not greasy, soft fresh pita, well rolled and easy to eat without spilling it everywhere.

Presentation There's only so many ways to serve a kebab. This one was double-wrapped in paper, cut in half and placed on a plate. Marks off for not putting a serviette on the plate - it is an essential item for eating a kekab - although they are readily available on the counter. 8/10

Size Very good lunch size. Leaves you feeling full but you don't get the loss of concentration and heavy feeling that can follow a grease fest (refer previous post on Foolok). 9/10

Value for money Perhaps a bit steep at $9.40. 7/10

Quality Very good. An advantage of getting a kebab during the busy lunch period is that you're not getting 3 hour old pre-cut dried out meat. 8/10

Overall I would say 'very impressive', but it is hard to be impressed by such a simple meal. However, what is impressive is how many meals are unimpressive by comparison. Capisce? An all but guaranteed winner every time. 8/10

Who wins - kebab or kebab? Iron Chef Kebab

Kebabzzbar - Chicken Kebab with the Lot

Kebabzzbar is your typical kebab shop, serving a range of selections. Lamb, Chicken and Falafel kebabs are available. They also offer a multitude of options with what's in your kebab - A kebab with cheese, egg, hommus through to a kebab with the lot.


A chicken kebab with the lot will set you back $9.40 and you can select anything from the complimentary salad bar - hommus, lettuce, cheese, onion, tabouli, tomato, green capsicum, olives, cucumber and jalapeños. There is a selection of about 8 sauces to compliment your kebab choice.

Presentation: There is no 'nice' way present a kebab. Each kebab is wrapped in paper twice around the bread, and then a Kebabzzbar staff member gives you two options, eat in or takeaway. If you choose to takeaway, the kebab is placed in a small plastic bag, if you choose to eat in, the kebab is cut in half, and the two halves placed on a plate. 5/10

Size: A good size, however if you are feeling less hungry, you can select a different option which wouldn't be packed quite as full as the one I had. 9/10

Value for money: Pretty good value, again, giving you different options as to what you want to eat and how much you want to spend. The plain kebab starts at around $7.00. 7.5/10

Quality: This is probably one of the worst kebabs I've had from kebabzzbar. Whilst it looks well packed in the original picture, the other end was falling apart already at this stage, causing major structural instabilities when I got halfway through the first half and the sauce was running down my arm. This was because the paper wasn't well wrapped and the kebab started falling apart. 3/10

Overall: I've had better kebabs, and especially from this shop. A disappointing week from kebabzzbar. 4/10

Winner: Kebab or memory of Kebab? Memory of Kebab wins hands down. The Chinese looked more appetising than this today.