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Iskender Kebap is one of the most famous meat foods of Northwestern Turkey and takes its name from its inventor, İskender Efendi, who lived in Bursa in the late 19th century.
It is a kind of döner kebab prepared from thinly cut grilled lamb
basted with tomato sauce over pieces of pide bread and generously
slathered with melted butter and yogurt. Additionally, one cylindrical
meatball can be placed on top. It is commonly consumed with şıra as a
drink to aid digestion. Tomato sauce and boiling butter are sometimes
poured over the dish, at the table.
Unlike other traditional dishes of Turkish Cuisine, İskender kebap is a
trademark of İskender İskenderoğlu, a member of the İskender family,
who still run the restaurant in Bursa. Still, this dish is available in
many restaurants throughout the country sometimes under the name Bursa
Kebab, or a name that the serving restaurant made up (like "Uludağ
Kebap" or "Kukla Kebap", both in Ankara).
Differences from döner kebab
A serving of İskender kebap contains thin and wide strips of meat, on
the other hand döner kebap has smaller pieces of meat. In order to cut
large slices, Iskender is prepared from ground meat, which is why the
meat strips seem to have been cut from a large sausage. The fat content
of Iskender meat is lower than that of döner meat. İskender kebap is
also served with yogurt.
It is also the first ever vertical kebab, making it also the first ever proper döner kebab.
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