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Did you know….
Who has never heard of shish kebab? In Turkish, shish kebab, literally means “gobbets of meat roasted on a spit or skewers.” Probably the most famous preparation for grilled lamb, there seems to be countless recipes. It is said that shish kebab was born over the open field fires of the soldiers of the Turkic tribes that first invaded Anatolia, who used their swords to grill meat, as they pushed west from their homelands in Central Asia. Given the obvious simplicity of spit-roasting meat over a fire, I suspect its genesis is earlier. There is iconographical evidence of Byzantine Greeks cooking shish kebabs. But surely the descriptions of skewering strips of meat for broiling in Homer’s Odyssey must count for an early shish kebab.
In the Arab world, the same preparation is called shish kabab or lahm mishwy (grilled meat). The true shish kebabs are pieces of marinated lamb affixed to flat or four-sided bladed metal skewers that are grilled over a fire suspended by a skewer holder, without the meat ever touching the grilling grate. The varieties of marinades are wide and could include any combination of olive oil, lemon juice, onion juice, milk, yoghurt, rigani (wild marjoram), crumbled bay leaves, cinnamon, allspice, and other spices. Using tomatoes, onion wedges, and green bell pepper to separate the meat on the skewers has been suggested by several food writers to be a modern concoction invented by Turkish restaurateurs to make the skewers look more attractive to customers.(cliffordawright.com)
Today’s Restaurant
St. John’s Bar and Grill – Santa Clara
Average Cost
$9.50 for shish kabob awith salad or fries, $15 for a burger, fries and a soda
Rating (1-10)
10
Recommended Dishes:
Shish kabobs or any burger or sandwich of your choice!
It’s Friday and the kick off to a 3 day Memorial Day Weekend!
A 3 day weekend makes us all dance for joy but another thing that us Americans look forward to is lots and lots of barbecue!
Barbecue ribs..barbecue chicken, barbecue baked beans, barbecued corn on the cob and last but not least barbecue Shish Kabobs!
Shish Kabobs have always been a barbecue past time since I was first introduced to outside barbecue but the funny thing is that people don’t cook them all the time.
Probably because all of the work that has to go into the preparation. You just have to dive in, do some cutting of the flavors of choice and have at it.
There are so many designs of colorful tasty architecture you can do with Shish Kabobs so I get that it is a mind thumper to figure out where to begin but let me tell you the basics you need to have a skewer of delicate divine flavors without all of the hard work.
The traditional skewer will have a piece of meat of your choice, then bell pepper and onion and then the meat of our choice again until you fill up the skewer completely and then start grilling.
My mom likes to add pineapple with the bell pepper and onion between the hunks of meat which really gives it some pizzazz. It really brings a sweetness to the meat, bell pepper and onion so I highly recommend it.
Today I returned to St John’s for their awesome outdoor grilling! If you don’t remember St. Johns, I wrote about their sandwiches in my blog posts about their delicious chicken sandwiches and their excellent great tasting burgers so check them out when you have a chance.
Anywhoo. I met up with a buddy of mine Derek to open his eyes to this heavenly realm of barbecue and burgers and boy was he impressed and much as I.
You can smell the smoke from the grill a block away and to my surprise I see huge cut trip tip skewers on the grill. My eye twinkled a bit and my nerves in my body gave me a firm shake so I knew this was my item of choice today!
We both go for the skewers and my eyes almost water when I see the plump juicy taters of tri tip waiting to be engulfed by me.
Each bite was a tender succulent piece of exotic fantasy pieced together with a burst of vitamin c from the bell pepper and the sweetness of the onion. Then back again to juicy oil dripping tri tip and then back onto the bell pepper and onion train until the last stop was the fulfillment of the last bite! True live action eating! Good job St. Johns!
Thanks for joining me on today’s adventure! I hope you all enjoy your Memorial Day weekend! Keep hope alive!
Eating is an enjoyable way of life.Live it..Learn it..Love it!
Trevis Dampier Sr.
References
cliffordawright.com (2015) On Shish Kebabs
Retrieved from http://www.cliffordawright.com/caw/food/entries/display.php/id/82/
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