Best Kebab House
Leith Walk in Edinburgh is famous for little, unless you count a bit part in Trainspotting, a mention in a Proclaimers song, a reputation for flying pub furniture, broken pub windows, boarded up shops and drug deaths. In among the colourful culture that is Leith are some very fine chippies and cafes, the 'legendary' Valvona & Crolla and the Best Kebab House. I'm assured - by two sources - that the Best Kebab House lives up to its name. I'm promised it serves one of Edinburgh's finest examples of BritTurk-hybrid nightfood.
Doner kebabs, like the £4.20 example pictured above, are as British as Chicken tikka massala. It's a vertical rottisserie style lamb amalgam served with fresh veggies inside a heated pitta bread with a splodge of chilli sauce. Kebabs are traditionally gobbled, smeared, squeezed and dripped along streets near pubs and are particularly popular from 11:30pm onwards. Kebabs are streetfood, or at least food that's eaten on streets. Telltale signs of 'doing a kebab' include a trail of chilli sauce, red cabbage, tomatoes, soggy napkins and discarded polystyrene boxes. Which is why I feel a total fake. This is my first ever daylight kebab. Sin of sins, I take it home. It's also (probably) the only kebab I've ever purchased without having stepped inside a pub beforehand. Don't believe the salad. This kebab - I ordered the small size, but it's way big - is total stodge.
A lack of alcohol doesn't help my enjoyment. I used to love these things. This is my first kebab encounter in maybe ten years and it's not going down well. "One too many noodle soups and you may turn" they said. I think they were right. I'm told the chicken kebab is *the one* to go for here and I'll give it a go next time I'm back. For now, this is my last early evening meal in the UK and it's not a good one. Back in Saigon soon. Noodles, fish sauce, snails, dogs, rats and pig's uterus... real food. At last. Can't wait. Meanwhile the BBC has a list of the World's best kebab shops. And the humble kebab is listed on one of 50 things you should eat before you die.
That looks more like a buritto than a kebab! Hope it was tasty, and thanks for the tip on where to go if I ever find myself in Scotland looking for the best kebab shop ever!
Posted by: Bill Belew | May 22, 2006 at 05:39 PM
Sunshine on Leith.
One of my all time favourite songs.
"My heart was brooo-ken.." etc
Beautiful.
Posted by: omih | May 23, 2006 at 07:51 AM
Nothing like a lack of sunshine to bring out the yearning... There's a lotta yearning in Leith.
For lyrics I find Betty Boo's
"And boy, I really miss you. And all I wanna do is kiss you. I've used up all my tissues.'Cos there's more seriouser issues"
Very, VERY hard to beat.
Posted by: pieman | May 23, 2006 at 08:02 AM
If we're talking lyrics, my current favourite is:
"I stole a kiss from you, in the supermarket. You walked me down the aisle. I filled your basket."
Name that tune. Without using Google.
Posted by: omih | May 23, 2006 at 08:11 AM
Sounds like Jarvis Cocker, but I doubt it. if it's a current song - forget it - I'm totally out of touch... This is more my thing these days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjMvQHgAgjg
BTW- I see your using a blog link log thing. How do you do that?
Posted by: pieman | May 23, 2006 at 08:22 AM
www.mybloglog.com
Nahh it's not a current lyric. Just a current favourite.
From the same great who brought you: "I saw two shooting stars last night, I wished on them but they were only satellites. It's wrong to wish on space hardware, I wish, I wish, I wish you're care"
The answer here:
http://www.braggtopia.com/songs/brickbat-lyric.htm
Posted by: omih | May 23, 2006 at 08:49 AM
Bloody RedWedgeite...
Posted by: pieman | May 23, 2006 at 08:51 AM
Nowt wrong with Red Wedge. I thank it daily that I was an impressionable teenager at the time. Or I might have been the young conversatives for me and I'd be a bloody accountant now.
Posted by: omih | May 23, 2006 at 09:04 AM
how do i get best kebab?
Posted by: jim | June 24, 2006 at 02:38 AM
i got the ''chicken kebab last night and i got the worst food poisening ive ever had today.
Posted by: scott | November 22, 2007 at 10:32 PM