Shawarma, or otherwise, most often in the CIS countries call this dish - shawarma - this is a bright representative of Oriental cuisine of Arabic origin. Thanks to the fast cooking of shawarma and the rule of eating the dish presented by hand, it has become an integral part of fast food. Many modern inhabitants of a large metropolis often lack shawarma for lack of a large amount of time for a lunch break.

The innumerable points of sale of the aforementioned dish and the various reviews of skeptical opponents of the street kitchen turned the fast food into a stop dish. Unfortunately, people have lost, and some have not even known all the charms of this beautiful combination of thin dough and minced juicy meat in combination with vegetables and sauce.

The difference between shawarma and shaverma and other dish names

In fact, shawarma is just one of dozens of variations of a dish, the basis of which is meat and vegetables, wrapped in unleavened dough and generously doused with sauce.


  The word "shaverma" appeared in the name of the dish, which is customarily called shawarma only because of the difference in dialect and pronunciation between Muscovites and St. Petersburgers. In fact, "shaurma" and "shaverma" is a classic dish of the Arab world, in which the main role is played by meat (preferably chicken, lamb or beef), vegetables and sauce wrapped in thin pita bread. The difference between the two concepts is only in pronunciation, which is more convenient for residents of a particular region.

It is preferable for each country and region to choose a filling for the test in accordance with their religious convictions, peculiarities of national cuisine and taste preferences.

Depending on the number of ingredients, their composition and characteristics of the preparation, there are:

1. Pete is when the whole filling is placed on one side of the dough, and the second is covered up and fried in a hot frying pan or grill. This type of shawarma is prepared in Belgium.
2. Doner or doner kebab is a type of shawarma, which in its filling distinguishes all kinds of meat, sausages, sausages and a large abundance of sauces and vegetables to choose from. Düner can be found in the open spaces of Azerbaijani, Armenian, German and Polish fast food cuisine.
3. Gyrros is a Greek shawarma that takes its name from meat, which is wrapped in thin, yeast-free dough.

Classics and variations of shawarma recipe

According to the form, shaurma is a flat cake, pita bread, or, in other words, pita, for which different products are used as insides - minced meat, various vegetables, and also special spices and sauces.

In the open spaces of the Russian Federation, meat is consumed as a stuffing for shaverma - be it boiled pork, beef, lamb, and also poultry meat - turkey or chicken. But the inhabitants of Muslim countries are approaching the manufacture of doner kebabs even more exactingly and use only camel or sheep meat for these purposes.

Meat for the inside of shawarma must necessarily be grilled according to a special technology. As according to the traditional classical recipe, shawarma should be sharp and bright in taste, they use many different spices in cooking. The classic additions are pepper, turmeric and zira, a lot of greens - parsley, dill and cilantro, and according to some recipes, also garlic with onions.


  More suitable as a shawarma sauce and more useful are considered kefir or smetanny saucesseasoned with garlic.

Vegetable garnish for doner-kebab should be chosen on the basis of the season - in summer it is excellent to use cucumbers with tomatoes, and in the winter - cabbage, carrots and other vegetables in season.

There are also vegetarian options for making shawarma that do not contain meat.

Many manufacturers fill shawarma with ordinary sausages or canned fish.

About the dangers of fast food shawarma

British experts investigated the value and composition of famous fast food: Indian and Chinese dishes, kebabs and fish and chips - fried fish with french fries. They found that practically the entire fast-cooking kitchen contains an excessive amount of fat. However, kebab turned out to be a favorite in harmful food.

Nutritionists from the English county of Hampshire indicated that shawarma,   25% fat. Eating shawarma about 2 times a week increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases 10 times, since the main cause of heart problems is an excessive amount of fat in the human body.

There are some contraindications to the consumption of shawarma. Such a dish is contraindicated for people with problems in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as pregnant women and children. The whole thing is not only in the high fat content of this dish, but also in the content of a large amount of hot sauce and spices, which adversely affects the work and the condition of the internal organs of a person.

As a rule, the sizes of shawarma are quite large, and therefore it is necessary to sensibly assess the capabilities of your body and understand that frequent use of such a dish leads to the accumulation of overweight.


  Since shawarma is considered to be the fast-food dish of the available products, you can find an alternative in the form of cooking the presented dish at home, replacing fatty sauces and meat with more dietary options. Proper preparation and compliance with all standards of sanitation is the surest way to enjoying a dish called shawarma.

Shawarma or shawarma - is it the same dish? And how to pronounce? Today, under the heading "Okay, Google," we will deal with the correct pronunciation of this oriental dish according to the norms of the Russian language.

Shawarma or shawarma?

The Middle Eastern dish of pita, stuffed with meat, some native speakers call shawarma, and others - shaverma. Yes, this is the same dish, there is no gastronomic difference here. Confusion is brought in by signs on cafes, which also cannot come to a single name. In fact, in the modern dictionaries of Russian language, there is no schawarma, then shawarma. All experts and linguists are united in this regard: the correct option is shawarma, and only she.

Battle of the two capitals

Interestingly, this confrontation of words arose from two capitals. In Moscow, they say correctly - shaurma, but in St. Petersburg everywhere they eat shaverma. According to Yandex, shawarma is commonly spoken in the Northwest, and in the rest of Russia, shawarma.

- This is a very typical situation when there is a primordial word that has been used for a long time, and suddenly some kind of reform begins. Suddenly, the word that was originally conquers, because she and her shaurma are shaurmas. There are a lot of any conversations there, that this is Turkic, Persian, and so on, that is, etymology can be talked about for a long time. But we drove the shaurma, tried to enter the shawarma. And here, plus Moscow and Peter, of course, they are very worried about this. As a result, the folk etymology wins, that is, the fact that lives among the people still wins. And I think that it is impossible to defeat a shawarma, I think you can poison it as much as you like, but, nevertheless, it costs every metro and will still live. This is our normal such Eurasian version of the name of a very good food if it is well prepared, - said the professor of Moscow State University Vladimir Elistratov.

Why did the word "shaverma" appear?

The fact is that shawarma is not the most convenient name for our man. Russian language avoids the confluence of two vowels, which means that shawarma for us is simply a more convenient version of pronunciation. Some linguists believe that soon there will be a shawarma in the dictionaries, as the norm regarding curd, coffee and other products once changed.

Other names of shawarma

Interestingly, in addition to the usual “shaverms”, this dish has a lot of names. For example, in Turkey, shavermu is called Dener-kebab, in Belgium - pita-derum, and in Greece - gyros. The essence of the dish is the same everywhere - meat, wrapped in a flat cake.

Shawarma or shaverma is called the traditional food of the Middle Eastern peoples, consisting of meat and wrapped in pita bread. In order to properly prepare such a dish, you will need to buy equipment for shawarma, which is used for roasting meat.

Traditionally, given the region of origin of the dish, the stuffing for shawarma or shawarma is the meat of sheep, calf or chicken. Much less common stuffing of pork. This is typical of countries with a non-Muslim religion. In addition, various sauces, spices, vegetables and salads act as components to the dish.

Where does such a specific name of the dish come from, and why do different variants arise? The fact is that by its very nature shawarma and shawarma are one and the same, however, given the difference in the pronunciation of different regions, a similar confusion arises. In addition, given the wide geography of distribution of shawarma (shawarma), depending on the region, you can find different cooking options. So in different regions of Russia, for example, during the preparation of shawarma, thin pita bread is used, and to create the same dish, only half a pita is used under the name shawarma.

Shawarma, shawarma, shaorm and other meat names in pita bread

Interestingly, the principle of cooking the entire spectrum of these dishes, regardless of the name, is absolutely the same. Used grill for meat. This is a special technology that allows you to evenly warm the pieces of lamb, beef, turkey or chicken. Most often, the sliced ​​pieces are strung on a vertical skewer, rotating around its axis. At this time, gas-powered or electrical heating elements gradually fry the meat on all sides. During cooking, the toasted edges are cut with a special knife, and the rest of the meat continues to rotate. Next, the products are crushed and placed in pita with spices and salads.

Despite the same principle of cooking in different countries, its name is significantly different. So in Algeria, you will be offered to try dener, and it will turn out to be an ordinary shawarma. In Armenia, Karsi Horovats will be served - the same, wrapped in a local analogue of lavash - Pstsy. Residents of Belgium will be treated with a pita-durum or simply durum. Here it is already similar to the difference between shawarma and shawarma. Durum is used in thin pita bread, similar to shawarma, in a pit duryum filling is placed in a pitta. Bulgarians call shawarma düner, the English kebab, Greeks and Cypriots use the name gyros pita, and the people of Israel cannot decide between shawarma, shwarma and shouarma, although the dish is one and the same.

But regardless of pronunciation and spelling, the main thing is to make it tasty. And this will help professional equipment for roasting meat offered by the company.

The administration of the city of Yekaterinburg within the framework of the project “Yekaterinburg speaks correctly” addresses the perennial question of choosing the word: shaurma or shaverma?

Specialists of the informational portal “Russian language” note that these words deserve a detailed story. Philologists point out that there is no single source language from which this dish came. It is known among different peoples of the Middle East, its name is pronounced in every language in its own way. There are many options, not only “shaurma” and “shaverma”, but also “shawarma”, “shaorm”, “shuarma”. And this word has come to the Russian language in various forms, but the most widespread are “shaurma” and “shaverma”.

The use of "shaurma" in Moscow and "shaverma" in St. Petersburg can be explained only by one thing: there were more people from the places where the name of the dish sounds like "shaurma" in the capital, so this option took root in Moscow. Well, the inhabitants of the city on the Neva River were probably first introduced to them by the natives of those countries where they say “shaverma”. Quite quickly, both words entered the list of differences in the speech of Muscovites and Petersburgers, well known to many: curb curb, front porch and others.

In other cities of Russia one can meet both “shawarma” and “shaverma”, and since they prepare this dish differently, sometimes both names peacefully coexist with each other in the same city, denoting different types of fast food.

One of the first vocabulary fixations of a controversial word was found in the publication “The Explanatory Dictionary of the Modern Russian Language. Language changes of the end of the 20th century ”G. N. Sklyarevskaya. The dictionary was prepared by the staff of the Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, located in St. Petersburg. It contains three versions of the spelling and sound: “shaverma”, “shaverma”, “shaurma”. Work on the dictionary was in the 1990s, then this word was still being mastered in Russian. In the publication there are examples from newspaper texts of the 1990s, where it is even enclosed in quotes, that is, it was then still quite unusual.

In the newest academic dictionaries of the Russian language only “shawarma” is recorded. These are V.Lopatin's “Russian Orthographic Dictionary”, and M. L. Kalenchuk, “The Great Orthoepic Dictionary of the Russian Language”. Both editions are prepared by the staff of the Moscow Institute of the Russian Language named after V.Vinogradov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but, of course, this does not mean that the norms recorded in these dictionaries do not apply in other cities. "Shavermy" in the modern academic dictionaries of the Russian language is not.

Philologists point out that “Shawarma” has not yet lost the chances of “registration” in the academic dictionary. The fact is that since 2004, the multivolume “Large Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language” has been published. It is prepared by the above-mentioned Petersburg Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. While 23 volumes came out of print, the dictionary got to the letter "P". It remains to wait a few more years, when the volume with the letter "W" will be published. It is very interesting, whether there will be a controversial word in this dictionary, and if so, in what form. Perhaps, "Shawarma" still strikes back, point out linguists.

“Shaverma”, not even included in the academic dictionaries, continues to be the word of the Russian language and a vivid example of Petersburg speech. But at the same time, in the strict forms of writing, you still need to use the word "shawarma", recommended by normative dictionaries.

Thus, it is right: to buy shawarma, to cook shawarma.

Photo www.yandex.ru

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Materials on the topic

How correctly: shawarma or shawarma? Where in Russia is the best cooked popular dish? How does doner differ from it? The author of the popular Telegram channel “The Cabinet of the Shawarmologist”, Avgustin Aliyev, understood the problem specifically for and answered the main questions concerning the country's most popular street food.

Original and fake

The story of my acquaintance with shawarma and doner began when my youthful consciousness was just forming. In 2004, I moved to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, where I met a doner, a local authority on street food, which for a long time became my favorite fast food. In 2009, I returned to my native Moscow and, upon arrival, found familiar windows and tents with a meat skewer - “doner” in Turkish means “spinning”. Naturally, I, without thinking, decided to eat well-known fast food, but I was embarrassed by the name: "shawarma".

“What is the name?” - I asked myself a question, but nevertheless ignored doubts and ventured to go all-in. They gave me a “long stick” of pita bread, which already surprised me, and then the surprise only grew, but the positive attitude, on the contrary, was gone. Questions followed one after another. Cabbage? What? Why is she here? What kind of garlic sauce? Why pita bread? What is it?

I still could not finish the shawarma at that time, and indeed I never finished eating when I decided to buy this dish. And after all I could eat a toner before loss of pulse. So what is shawarma? Who came up with it and where did it come from? Why is shawarma in Moscow and shawarma in St. Petersburg? And why, finally, in Russia, shawarma and doner are sometimes considered the same dish?

I repeat, doner is a Turkish dish, and shaverma is Arab, as many believe. But I, in my thesis work, indicated the deposit was not Arab countries, but Spain, where meat rolls were sold on the squares, served with salad and sauerkraut. These rolls had a very familiar name - shavarum. The name is consonant with shawarma for a reason: the Arab nomads borrowed it along with the recipe and brought it with them to their native lands. However, no Spaniard has confirmed this theory to me.

In Russia, the first tent with shawarma appeared in the 1990s, but the mass distribution of the Spanish-Arab skewers began between 2005 and 2008. Shawarma - the name that stuck with the dish in Moscow, but soon underwent a transformation due to frequent cases of poisoning. Shawarma was even banned for sale, but since enterprising and erudite businessmen live in our country, the popular product went into service without a single delay thanks to a new name, doner.

They called shawarma doner only because of the similarity of the vertical poles on which the meat spins, and the word-supplement "kebab", as it is found in the names of both dishes: "doner kebab" and "shawarma kebab". For some mythical and incomprehensible reasons for me, large and small information portals, well-known bloggers and other people and platforms who have access to the mass distribution of information, are still engaged in distributing incorrect information about this dish, calling shawarma doner.

Different doners are needed

Let's figure out what the difference is. Traditionally, doner is served in a tortilla, or, as the Turks say, “ekmek aras”, which translates as “in bread” (“ekmek” - “bread” in Turkish). Many people confuse even these concepts. Flapjack is not a pita or pita. Even pitas can be confused with each other: they are Semitic, Greek, and so on. Doner is also different. For example, Turkish-Azerbaijani and German. In this case, the Germans pronounce the name as dune (p).

The first is traditional, and the second is changed in German conditions. I am a supporter and fan of the classic Turkish-Azerbaijani doner. His recipe is: flat bread (oval), beef (traditionally) or chicken (popular), fresh tomatoes and cucumbers, pickled Turkish peppers (traditionally, but unpopular), pickled cucumbers, french fries (not used everywhere), tomato sauce and mayonnaise (popular, but not traditional). Note that doner is prepared not in a pita, not in pita bread, there is also no garlic sauce in it, and most importantly, no cabbage. In Azerbaijan, doner is also served in round bread, which is called “tombik”.

The German doner appeared already in the 20th century, when the Turks who emigrated to Germany took with them their traditional gastronomic delights of street food, but already in a foreign land the dish underwent a transformation. German doner is also cooked in bread, but already cone-shaped. It can be used cabbage, and red, so that the dish looks more beautiful.

As I have already noted, the Turkish doner is cooked in an oval flat cake and is closed, and in the case of the dune (dune - German pronunciation) is served open, which gives false associations of a huge dish. Although German doner compared with the Turkish and indeed a little more. As a rule, the German doner is called Berlin Kebab. Also German dune (p) is often cooked with beef. Other distinctive ingredients: a mix of salads, cheese, cheese and a few sauces, where the main tomato and dzadziki remain.

Checkmate, doner

The capital of Russia has long been attacked by a real toner, but most of the attempts ended in failure, because in Moscow there are too many for whom the cheap long shawarma stick seems to be the most profitable offer in terms of volume compared to the oval doner. But this simple logic, alas, is sadly deceptive, because shawarma is large in volume only due to a large amount of freshly chopped cabbage, while in the doner the dominant ingredient is meat with the complete absence of cabbage.

Very often, when I saw the sign “Doner”, I desperately rush to the window of the stall with a question: “Doner is real or you have shawarma?” And in response, almost always I get: “What's the difference? This adno and tozhe, pita Arabic ". To understand the absurdity of such a response, I will give an illustrative example from another area. You came to the Japanese Nissan car dealership and asked: “Do you really have Nissan or are you selling?” What do you get the answer: “What's the difference? Mator and icon just from the Czech "Skoda". " I call it a threesome.

No, I am not against shawarma, but in its traditional form, authentic. It is necessary to understand and know one main fact: in Moscow there is a separate and own industry of shawarma, and it is terrible. In rare cases, in Belokamennaya, there are courageous attempts to open an institution with the author, and even less often with a real Semitic shawarma (Semites - Arabs and Jews), that is, with the ethnic version of the dish. Shawarma, similar to the Moscow variation, is also sold in Kiev and Minsk, but in St. Petersburg, the dish has a different story and its own industry, which is several times better than the capital.

In Moscow, large monopolists in the shadows are responsible for a large number of stalls, or, as I call them, “shawarmy mafiosi”. For this reason, the composition, taste and value in the capital is similar. In St. Petersburg, in many respects, due to the low cost of rent, and, consequently, a greater opportunity to open its point, shawarma everywhere is different both in cost, taste and form, which deserves special attention.

Own pride

It is not surprising that the well-known YouTube project Shaverma Patrol was born in this city from the equally well-known blogger Yuri Khovansky. Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, in addition to various institutions where I do reviews for my channel, I gladly pay gastronomic attention to at least one meat roll. Although in the northern capital, shawarma is not always wrapped up in the form of a roll - sometimes a square shawarma occurs. In addition to the form, shawarma differs in taste due to different products and spices used for marinade meat. In Moscow, the standards are simple and banal: garlic horror and pita from the newspaper.

In addition to Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are also other player cities on the shawarm map of the country. For example, Tver, where the attention of the public presented Shvarma - the Israeli version of the name. Here are just the composition and method of preparation is not Jewish. You should not lose sight of another city, Nizhny Novgorod, where, according to numerous reviews, the most delicious shawarma in Russia is prepared. The cult stall has a simple and understandable name: "The very Shawarma on the Middle."

Sochi is also among those cities where shawarma are seen in their own way, but along with this Arab dish on the streets of the sunny region, its Greek rival gyros is also popular. It is especially annoying when the gyros are called shawarma, because it also prepares on a spit. Gyros includes mainly pork, french fries, tomatoes and cucumbers, red onion and yogurt tzadziki. And I give an average example of the composition, but in reality there are numerous variations on the subject.

It is believed that in St. Petersburg shaurma is called shaverma only because it is a traditional Arabic name, but this is not at all the case. The eastern nations themselves have different dish names because of the difference in dialects: shaurma, shaverma, shaorma, shuarma, and so on. In Arabic, it is written اورمة, which reads "shau (W) rma / e". That is, the same letter (third) can be pronounced both as a Russian “y” and as an Arabic w. Since the Russian language lacks the necessary sound, it turns into “to”.

Arab shawarma is traditionally made of lamb or beef, although sometimes there is also an option with chicken. The filling is wrapped in pita bread, which in some places is called “laffa”. This is a thin and soft oriental tortilla. The Arab shawarma also lacks cabbage, but there is hummus and other pickles, with the exception of the pickled cucumber, as well as spices.

Israeli shvarma also has distinctive features: Israeli pita, hummus, Tkhina, eggplants, fresh greens, many sour ingredients like the manga amba sauce, pickled radishes and pepper. All of the above compositions of dishes in different countries are given as an example of popular. May vary depending on the regions and the institutions themselves.

Yes, and the above products and ingredients in different places can be prepared in different ways. For example, a pita is completely different: the Jews have a small round pocket, the Arabs have it bigger and thinner, and the Greeks without a pocket have a thick round layer. Lavash is also pita strife, and in Moscow in particular, and in Russia as a whole, they even manage to confuse it with tortilla.

Shawarma is not the only dish whose name in Moscow is confused and assigned to another dish. Generally speaking, a complete terminological mess and misinformation reigns in the Moscow gastronomic arena: shaurma doner, gyros shaurma, gyros souvlaki, burrito shaurma, burrito fajito, quesadilla tako, Greek falafel, and so on. Everyone calls the dish as he wants, and it does not matter whether it is correct or not.

But still in Moscow it is possible to find rare places where authentic doner is cooked. They can literally be counted on the fingers, and not everyone prepares absolutely correctly. As a rule, you can find a real doner in the places where the Turks work: the Gardener market, the Afimoll shopping center, and so on.

If you have the desire and skill, you can find a Berlin kebab, authentic Arab shawarma, and Israeli Schwarma. Again, as a rule, in the habitats and get-togethers of Jews and Arabs. In addition, you can also stumble upon institutions with the author's variations of shawarma. On my channel, I often talk about places where you can find doner, author and authentic shawarma, gyros and other similar dishes in their proper execution.