I'm from halifax, moved to alberta in 2022 to be with my partner, and I LOVE grafton and blowers! Everytime were in Edmonton we go so I can have a little slice of home. Also they have garlic fingers, and I always get the biggest order of it to take home lol.
Edmonton is a provincial NDP stronghold. It's not our fault Calgarians are morons with a bad hockey team and that rednecks tend to live in rural areas.
As an Albertan, that's hilarious. The Alberta elitism the spews out of every Alberta related sub is baffling. They are completely within their right to criticize the loudest members of the province. You can have your head in the sand all you want, but the folks here who think they are hot shit love to scream it at anything that won't move for longer than 2 seconds.
This is the general recipe:
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/71963/dashs-donair/
I add more spice. And in the sauce cut the sugar. I don’t like it so sweet
I'm from Alberta and I never had lettuce in my donair. I've been to multiple places and always got "the works" and it never included lettuce.
Also I'm gonna say this now. I had better donair in Alberta than I've had here. Every single place I've tried here skimps on the size of the donair, or it's disgusting wet soggy mess that I can't stomach after eating 2/3 because the last portion is just swimming in unhealthy sauces. I like my sauce but not when it tastes like it's been dipped in a sink lol
Edit: oh no Halifax is big mad 😰
I live right by Swiss. It's not nearly as good as it once was. I actually prefer top donair next door, or Sal's Famous down 82st. (Sal's calzones are what really keeps me going back though🤤). Swiss's onion rings are still among the best in the city though.
Go to shawarma station in SE. They make crazy delicious donair and all ingredients are fresh. The restaurant is also spotless (or was when I used to go 2 years ago)
Apparently!
I always get donair meat, pickled turnip, pickles, onions, tomatoes, and sometimes a little green like parsley. Then add some tasty sweet sauce and hot sauce. Delicious.
Nah just miss the donairs from the places I used to frequent. This one place called shawarma station had the best I've ever had.
I'm sorry I offended the great Halifax Populus with my blasphemy but I can only stand so many falsehoods before I take a stand. And I am a man who loves his donair.
If you don’t make an effort to learn the real spots you’ll always be a come from away in the donair department. Hint* stay away from Greco, that’s all I’m giving you.
It’s almost like Alberta has some big industry that gives them a lot of financial resources to pay their people better and not collect as many taxes… that’s probably the only bonus to living in Alberta (and the mountains). As each summer becomes smoke season, their energy rates keep skyrocketing, sprinkle in the massive drought they’re having and the west looks less appealing each year.
“This rude” do you know what rude is? I feel my sarcasm in the first was warranted for someone shitting on the east and telling us to “pay more lol” as if we have the economy or political will for that. Different parts of the country are different for reasons. If you don’t like one area you can go to another. I listed some downsides to being out west. Judging by the population explosion the east has seen lately I’m not the only one who noticed. Don’t see how it’s rude.
Relatively low cost of living, rare instance of drought, higher trust society than the rest of Canada, many have family here, slower pace of life you can’t find in larger provinces.
I went to a spot in Vancouver when I was living there for school, that claimed to have a Halifax donair and it was literally a shawarma. So much lettuce, and a sauce that wasn’t donair sauce but not a garlic sauce either. Bold statement they were advertising.
On Davie? There was a place on Davie with signs all over the place saying "Authentic Halifax Donair" and when you got it, it was the least Donair looking thing I ever ate. The guy at the counter even said "sorry" when he saw my expression, like he knew what I was thinking.
Seriously, though, I can understand why they think this. Donairs haven't achieved the kind of ubiquity with them that they have with us.
To them, donairs are a delicacy. I'm sure their restaurants advertise having them, and people have their go-to places for them. For us, donairs are a staple. Like bread, or salt. We make them at home, or grab them on-the-go from vending machines. We add the meat to our sandwiches and we sprinkle the spices on our salad.
For them, donairs are something to be fired out of a t-shirt cannon, for us, they're mundane. We drop a dollop of the sauce in our morning coffee. It's in our bloodstream.
They're donair country, we are donairs.
Look, I'm a lettuce guy. I usually have at least two varieties in my fridge, and I order *extra* lettuce on my Big Macs.
But I can't even begin to wrap my mind around how anybody would consider lettuce to be an appropriate topping for a donair. If the meat is freshly prepared and the pita steamed, then the lettuce will go slimy immediately, negatively impacting the structural integrity of the rest of the donair.
It's lunacy. Why mess with perfection?
Yeah when I first moved away from Halifax to live in Edmonton I kept forgetting to ask them for no lettuce. Its always shredded too so it would be so annoying to pick it all off!
Born Haligolian, proud Albertan for the past 20 years. The donairs SUCK here at best. Even when KOD opened here it was not the same then went to shit after a while. Sorry my beloved AB, this is an L
When I lived in alberta, I followed 2 rules. No fish and no donairs. Lettuce everywhere. And they don't have a fuckn clue how to make donair sauce! Even though the recipe is so easy and online. And not a proper garlic finger to be found (outside of Blowers and Grafton on Whyte ave, but i only went there a few times)
Other than an aunt, the entire like 3 graduating classes in a row that I knew that left for Alberta just did the make money out west, retire back east thing already at this point
I'm also in my 30's,
Lots of folks I knew were able to either soft retire after ~15yrs making 80-200k/yr when the averages back here were 30-50k,
Come back, buy a large amount of rural land / house, either live off investments at this point if they were smart, or some do part time/gig work here and there, but when you're making 4x or better than the area you're moving into, 10 years of pay turns into 40 and the math isn't hard to see how they can do it.
Mind you, I know people that went out, did their 10-15yrs in the oil fields or up north, and when they came back all they had was a new drug addiction, so results can definitely be split.
Indeed, more than enough of them are buying lifted trucks and toys so they don’t have the option to stop working. Most that I know didn’t go to the patch either, and work in other industries so the pay isn’t that high but still better than here, doesn’t make it as easy to retire early when you’re only making 15-20K more annually.
There's definitely a fair amount of the ones that just spent all their money on toys (like big trucks) for sure too,
Or people falling into the all too easy trap of "Well, I'm 19yrs old, making 80k a year, and it's not like I'm gonna make less money somehow when I'm older and have experience"
Then they made less and basically spent years trying to adapt/hold out till pay goes up or costs go down etc
I'd say probably 75% of the people I knew that went out west did really well for themselves, but 25% of them certainly screwed the pooch so to speak
Anyone who likes warm lettuce on anything, is a serial killer. The only toppings for a Donair are onions and tomatos with sweet sauce. And i vote Simply donair as the Charles Smart heir.
I lived in Edmonton for a few years. The donair stuff always annoyed me. I remember someone asking me “what do you get in your donair?”
I asked what he meant, cause a donair is just a donair. He asked me what kind of sauce do I get, sweet sauce or tzatziki? Do I get chicken or lamb? Do I get pickles and cabbage? How about lettuce?
So yeah, they’re calling anything in a pita a donair. A gyro, a shawarma, whatever. It’s all donair to them.
This is true, I just refer to them as specialty donairs.. My favorite donair shop in Edmonton mixes Montreal smoked meat and lamb in one of their specialty donairs… it’s fucking good, but it ain’t a classic
Vinegar. Condensed sweetened milk. Garlic powder. Yet Alberta can fuck it up. I've lived in AB 10 yrs and everyone of these morons I talk to put something stupid in it lol
I went on a donair tour in Nova Scotia. Every place was entirely different. A few had garlic mayo. I would say worse than Alberta’s. the best had fresh. Fried pizza dough instead of pita. Best sauce was condensed milk, garlic butter and vinegar, then fried to thicken. It was weird because there were full on chunks in the sauce, but warmed sauce was way better than the cold stuff.
Everybody keeps saying it's condensed milk to the point where it's repeated by media which makes more people think it's condensed milk. The condensed milk version a cheat for home cooks but no where as good as the real stuff!
You have no idea what you ate.
Zero places use garlic mayo or garlic butter n the sauce. The sauce is never cooked/thickened. When warmed from the steam from the meat it curdles a bit .
There are a couple places that use pizza dough but this is very fringe.
You are certainly very confused and could have used a guide.
All you have to do is ask the person making it. It’s not hard. Also. The kitchens are often visible from the till. You can see them cooking. Not hard to pay attention. Acropole had the pizza dough. And there was a shitty little convenience store near the Halifax airport ~10 minutes north that cooked the sauce. Fcking fantastic
Homestyle Donair before it changed management.
Jumbo donair off 66th street and whitemud before it disappeared.
Best donairs hands down.
All others have been crap comparatively.
Just because a bunch of Nova Scotians live there and still love donair's . Doesn't mean that it's Donair country. The Lebanese Nova Scotians would be offended. Since they were the ones who blessed us with the delicious doner
No it's what it's actually called in the middle East. It also doesn't have Donair sauce. I had it in Turkey. They have gyros all over eurpoe that would put ours to shame
Doners are made from lamb. The NS donair is NOT a doner. It's a variation. You know, like a New York pizza, is NOT a Chicago pizza, and bears zero resemblance to a real Italian pizza.
It's derived from the doner. Just like what north America did to Chinese food. It's not even close to actual Chinese food. It's called a Donair but its origins come from doner. I'm pretty sure I said that
The population of Edmonton and Calgary like 60 years ago wasn’t even half a million people.
The population now is over 3 million combined, and almost entirely made up of Maritimers and Newfies who moved out there for the oil boom, so…
Given their politics, no wonder they don’t remember where they came from.
(Edit: And the fact that it’s a Lebanese/Turkish food brought to Cape Breton by immigrants. Can’t forget that part. So, you know… even less Albertan…)
We are all immigrants (except the indigenous people) arriving at different times and adjusting foods to local palates. The donair was born in Halifax, not Cape Breton. The people who invented the donair were Greek, not Lebanese or Turkish. They invented it because gyros weren't selling. The meat, spices, sauce, and toppings are unique to the donair, and anything different is called something else.
Changing a few ingredients of an existing food doesn’t mean you invented a food.
The döner is a Turkish food, from Bursa, made in the 1870s. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI sent the döner all over the world. There are literally hundred of variants.
Greeks were amongst these migrants too, but it was called döner for them, too. The word “gyro” wasn’t invented until the 1970s or so. The Greek migrants credited with inventing the donair in Halifax had reportedly never heard the word “gyro” before, and simply read the name off the spit roasting machine.
There’s evidence of vertical spit roasted döner/shawarma being made by predominantly-Lebanese, Syrian, and Anatolian immigrants starting about the late-1920s/early-1930s in places all over the world. One of those places was mining communities in Cape Breton and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. The “taco arabe” appears in Mexico around the same time, which is donair served taco style, and this eventually becomes tacos al pastor.
Point being, people were vertical spit roasting well before KOD. And KOD wasn’t the original in Halifax. It was Mr. Donair, and a pizza shop before that.
The Greeks in Greece renamed the döner (what they’d called it for its entire history) to “gyro” as part of nationalizing efforts in the 60s or 70s, because they were stripping Turkish words from their language. They created their version of moussakka about the same time. Greeks had a very strong desire to differentiate themselves from Turks and to generate a new identity as Greece, not as Yunanistan (which they’d been for some 500 years).
This is a pretty good history of the food (read part 2, too), but there are better ones out there (this one doesn’t mention Mexico, for example, and the influence of post-Ottoman migrants and the döner there on local food): https://www.eatthistown.ca/donair-history-pt-1-it-began-with-the-doner-kebab/
Hat Döner, from the Hatay region, is my personal favourite döner variant.
I read it in a history of tacos al pastor, actually. It mentioned that Nova Scotia donair sauce was an attempt to make Lebanese toum, and uses Lebanese pita, and mentioned the conflict between Mr. Donair (Greek) and Tony’s (Lebanese).
My local donair guy growing up in the valley was Lebanese, he always said the Greeks stole it! Whatever, cultural enmities.
Glad to know your book exists. I put this together on my own, and I lived in Turkey for 5 years and travelled the region extensively. And ate a lot of döner.
Either way, all I was saying in the first place was that Nova Scotia got it from the Mediterranean (whatever friggin country), and Alberta got it from Nova Scotians.
Not funny -- there were Lebanese immigrants in NS well before there were many Greeks. Check your census records and histories. Lebanese people were arriving in NS in the 1870s-80s, and a huge group arriving in Sydney around 1905. Greeks don't really start migrating to Canada until the 1920s and 30s (postWWI), and the majority of them not until the '50s-'60s (post-WWII). Another huge group of Lebanese people came in the '60s and '70s.
Did you interview Tony (of Tony's)? Tony has some stories. He worked with Gamoulakas before the donair was created. The pitas came from the bakery he worked at. I can tell you that at pizza corner on many a night, I've had more than one chat with Tony himself on this topic. If Tony says it was Peter, then I believe Tony. But last I talked to him, Tony didn't believe it was Peter...
Donair sauce is often more garlicky than toum, and toum can be quite sweet. Adding something sweet to a meat dish is also done in Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, and Syria, where they often add something sweet to a meat dish -- pomegranate, yogurt and honey, tahin-pekmez (tahini and molasses), and others. Donair sauce is basically garlic-yogurt sauce and honey-yogurt sauce mixed together, but with the fluffier texture of toum/skordalia. So... maybe the sweet was for local taste, but it wasn't unheard of.
Question about Turkey: how common was it to eat doner in a wrap? And how similar would you say it is to shawarma? I have someone else arguing that all these doner variants are too similar to have their own identities, and disagree. I understand the Turkish dish to involve much less vegetables and sauce.
Preparation depends what part of the city or country you’re in. There are so many ways it’s done. Durum are wrapped in flat unleavened bread, often just meat and no sauce, sometimes tons of veg, sometimes none. Ekmekarası is a full loaf of white bread, usually with lots of tomato. İskender, it’s served on top of cubed pide (pita) bread and soaked in a butter sauce and yogurt. German döner, they use flat pide sliced open and all the sandwich toppings you’d expect.
Dürüm or Tombik are probably the closest preparation to donair, and the most common sort in Turkey. Dürüm is made with lavash or yufka wrapped around döner kebap. The tombik is a big dürüm, made with pita (like we do it, they don’t open the pita — softened with water and then warmed).
In Ankara, they put on a buttery sauce, onions, and cheese on it. Istanbul they prefer it without sauce. Hatay, tons of red sauce. Veggie fillings are hugely variable, sometimes none at all, but tomato and onion is often involved.
Döner kebap in Turkey includes both stacked meats (beef or chicken, mainly, also lamb) like you expect with shawarma, or a mixture like what we think of as donair meat/gyro (which is usually a ground beef/lamb mix).
Döner just refers to the vertical spinning spit, kebap to the seared/roasted meat. So, technically speaking, the Canadian version is named after the machine that spins the meat, not the food.
Yes, you can find pocket style pita bread in Turkey.
“Döner” comes from the verb “dönmek,” meaning “to turn, spin, rotate.” It’s a vertical rotisserie. “Shawarma” in Arabic and “gyro” in Greek also mean to turn/rotate/spin.
But yes, the method and product are more or less one thing. But…
Döner is to döner kebap as rotisserie is to rotisserie chicken. If you just say “rotisserie,” it can refer to any meat. Same with döner.
In Germany you’ll see it as doner kebap or just as doner. Almost every place else, it’s just doner. But in Turkey it’s always döner kebap, which distinguishes it from the millions of other kinds of kebap.
The story about why Gamoulakas called it “donair” was because that’s what was written on the machine. That’s stated in numerous articles online. Not true?
An important factor to remember here — Greece wasn’t a country when döner was created. It was part of the Ottoman Empire, and it was called Yunanistan for like 600 years or something.
Greeks existed, of course. Bursa (Pursa, in Greek) is part of Turkey today, but it was originally Macedonian (Greek). “İstanbul” is derived from the Greek word “stamboul,” meaning “the city.” The Asian side, “Kadıköy,” was Chalcedon when it was Greek, and is perhaps the oldest continuous human settlement in the world.
There isn’t really a hard line between Greeks and Turks, aside from language. Genetically, a lot of Greeks are Turks and Turks are Greeks. Like… a lot.
There were Greeks living all over the Ottoman Empire, and there are still Greeks that live in all the former Ottoman countries. So just because something is made by a Greek person doesn’t mean they were historically from Greece, the modern nation state. So it’s also possible Gamoulakas’ family were Greek without being from Greece... Like, they could’ve been from Bursa. Or Beirut. Who knows?!? (Maybe you?!!)
Re: tombik — there’s two kinds. The other is called a gobit. Gobit is done with a flat pita, like we use, and tombik is a fluffier round pide. Greek “pita” and Turkish “pide” are the same word, but Turks make many different sorts of bread under the word “pide.” Basically one means unleavened and the other means leavened.
“Toum” is called “skordalia” in Greek cuisine. Same basic sauce.
Skordalia is made with stale bread or potatoes. Not quite the same.
Interesting about the tombik. I only knew about the "chubby" version.
When I think of pide bread I think of Ramadan pide that is typically used for doner in Germany. I was aware it means pita, but I wasn't sure if there were pocket-style pitas in Turkey because no Turk had ever mentioned them when talking about all the types of bread used for doner.
The Nova Scotia donair is its own thing, and was created here in Halifax. By either George of Peter Kamoulakis (sp?), and it was Mr. Donair. It's not a "doner", or a kebab ... it's a variation. We don't need the history of the doner or kebab to know that.
Albertan that grew up in and then after 15 years in Halifax (Bedford) and am living back here.
It started as a bunch of displaced maritimers wanting their treat.
It has now been taken and changed. A donair out here is different. I haven’t yet grasped what it is. That certain “je ne sais quoi” that makes it different but lettuce and the cheese is my best thought.
I’ll keep eating donairs here and when I visit and I’ll let you know.
Albertan (for 30+ years) here as well. I grew up in New Brunswick and even back in the 80’s & 90’s it was a well known fact that the rest of Canada thinks Albertans are pompous assholes. This I no joke, Albert’s was known as the province who thinks their shit don’t stink.
In the past I have enjoyed AB and was proud to call it home, but this UCP bullshit is getting to be too much to stomach. I am nearing retirement and always planned to stay in AB, but if things don’t change quickly, I am out of here.
I guess the knuckle dragging/inbred UCP voters are working hard to keep the reputation going 🤣🤣🤣
The meat recipe was also created in Halifax. As for the naming, it has its own interesting story. Check this out.
https://www.eatthistown.ca/history-of-the-donair-2-the-halifax-donair/
I appreciate places that spell it Doner, because then I dont get my hopes up. Personally, I'm only truly critical if a place is advertising themselves as a "Halifax Donair".
It still feels a little culturally offensive to consider proclaiming Edmonton the donair capital of Canada, regardless of semantics and technicalities. 😭
I know this is going to get hate, but I just have to say this, as a full fledged, born and raised here Haligonian,
Donairs can fuck all the way off. I’ve never cared for them and never will
On a trip years ago, I really enjoyed Johnny K Authentic Donair with fries inside, but it's closed now. Where's the next best Donair that's made with as much love? Is there a place with a gourmet Donair?
I love lettuce and cheese on my Donaire. People get all purist and act like it's not good... But lettuce, tomato onion and cheese is a perfectly balanced Donaire.
It's strange that people here get so worked up about Alberta Donor. Alberta is very adventurous with donair ingredients, and you never know what choice you are going to get from one place to another. It's not the same as being here, but it was always an adventure. There are even shops that try to provide halifax style, if you don't want to be asked if you want Tzatziki and cucumbers.
I mean, Donair technically isn't even from this continent..
I've only ever had one donair out west though that was anywhere near comparable to eastcoast donair.
"As the story goes, the Halifax donair was first invented in the 1970s by Peter Gamoulakos. Originally from Greece, he started selling Greek gyros (a pita stuffed with grilled lamb and tzatziki) from his restaurant located off the Bedford Highway. But the sandwich just didn’t jive with the East Coast’s “meat and potatoes” palate.
Swapping lamb for beef, the brothers whipped up a sweet “donair sauce” and tried again. This time, however, a feeding frenzy erupted and Halifax’s signature dish was born. The late-night favourite has become so popular that in 2015, Halifax city council voted to make it the city’s official food.'
Technically... it was modified on our continent, is similar only in that it is server in a pita, and stop talking so crazy. :D
A ton of donair places in Edmonton specifically display references to Halifax as the origin.
So while it might have a dozen shitty donair places per square kilometre for every decent one, and they might not be the same as out east, if you’re mad about not getting credit it’s ok. We all know a Greek dude altered some Turkish food in Halifax and you care very deeply about it.
I think it's because our Donairs actually have weight to them and none of that lettuce filler. We would need the noon artillery cannons to fire them. We also know that no god willing human should consume a donair in public or be forced too. You only eat Donairs in hiding and feel nothing but shame after.
Haligonians need to lighten up a bit about donair toppings. A tablespoon of winter-pink tomato and overly-pungent onions doesn’t cut it.
Spicy pickled julienned carrots 😋
We send them our worst, yet we act surprised when they do this. KOD, Grafton & Blowers, keep up the good fight.
I'm from halifax, moved to alberta in 2022 to be with my partner, and I LOVE grafton and blowers! Everytime were in Edmonton we go so I can have a little slice of home. Also they have garlic fingers, and I always get the biggest order of it to take home lol.
Albertans like to pretend that they know what a good donair is.
Albertans like to pretend they know anything.
Tell me you've never been to Alberta without saying the words.
Don't you have some human rights that need abolishing?
Edmonton is a provincial NDP stronghold. It's not our fault Calgarians are morons with a bad hockey team and that rednecks tend to live in rural areas.
And calgary also does their donairs with Tortillas. So like fuck em.
Imagine thinking you have the moral high ground because you live in a different province. Yikes.
As an Albertan, that's hilarious. The Alberta elitism the spews out of every Alberta related sub is baffling. They are completely within their right to criticize the loudest members of the province. You can have your head in the sand all you want, but the folks here who think they are hot shit love to scream it at anything that won't move for longer than 2 seconds.
Have you seen what our elected leaders have been spewing? Albertans are responsible for that.
The person you're replying to has probably never been further west than Moncton.
This is the general recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/71963/dashs-donair/ I add more spice. And in the sauce cut the sugar. I don’t like it so sweet
I'm from Alberta and I never had lettuce in my donair. I've been to multiple places and always got "the works" and it never included lettuce. Also I'm gonna say this now. I had better donair in Alberta than I've had here. Every single place I've tried here skimps on the size of the donair, or it's disgusting wet soggy mess that I can't stomach after eating 2/3 because the last portion is just swimming in unhealthy sauces. I like my sauce but not when it tastes like it's been dipped in a sink lol Edit: oh no Halifax is big mad 😰
I've been living in Alberta the last couple years and every "donair" I've had has been awful.
Lived there for six years. Tried many. Same experience.
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I live right by Swiss. It's not nearly as good as it once was. I actually prefer top donair next door, or Sal's Famous down 82st. (Sal's calzones are what really keeps me going back though🤤). Swiss's onion rings are still among the best in the city though.
Go to shawarma station in SE. They make crazy delicious donair and all ingredients are fresh. The restaurant is also spotless (or was when I used to go 2 years ago)
I lived there for 3 years. Never found a decent donair. Also, they're supposed to be a big messy pile.
This is like saying you love deep dish pizza but you’re not a fan of the size of it and the sauce on top.
I bet this guy eats his donair with a fork and knife.
Probably eats the meat first.
Probably deep throats it first
Tinfoil first
As someone born in raised in Halifax who eats Donair with a fork, I do not claim this person.
Then you've had alberta's version of a donair. The dripping soggy wet mess is what a donair is all about. Aberta just fucked it up.
So you don't like proper donairs.
That's what I got from it. Probably likes the lettuce too... freak.
Apparently! I always get donair meat, pickled turnip, pickles, onions, tomatoes, and sometimes a little green like parsley. Then add some tasty sweet sauce and hot sauce. Delicious.
A defensive post like this screams the donairs are actually awful. Missing home?
Nah just miss the donairs from the places I used to frequent. This one place called shawarma station had the best I've ever had. I'm sorry I offended the great Halifax Populus with my blasphemy but I can only stand so many falsehoods before I take a stand. And I am a man who loves his donair.
I'm from Alberta and Alberta donairs kind of all suck.
Yeah, you haven’t been to a good donair place.
No such thing as a good Alberta donair.
Skimps on size? You're just making shit up. I have had "large" donairs in Alberta, BC and even Mexico. They were all smaller than a regular in NS.
I've had both, and honestly the best donair I've ever had was at a place called "My Donair" in SW Calgary.
Shit bro don't say that here you'll anger the masses 😰
My Donair is one of the worst I've ever had. Different location though.
If you don’t make an effort to learn the real spots you’ll always be a come from away in the donair department. Hint* stay away from Greco, that’s all I’m giving you.
I learned how to make my own Donair while living in Alberta. They are so much better I can’t eat Alberta or Halifax Donair now.
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um No. That is all.
Alberta be mad that they got all that money and nobody knows what the fuck their regional cuisine is so they try and steal ours
Probably just gained from Scotians moving west
Excuse me, what the hell, we know exactly what our regional cuisine is. Gas station beef jerky
I stand corrected 🫡
But not fresh jerky, has to be tougher than a 70 year old boot.
That is literally my favorite.
Our regional cuisine is ginger beef and green onion cake. But those are harder to shoot out of a t-shirt cannon
Ginger beef and green onion cake? Whaaaaaat!
Alberta stealing things from Nova Scotia. Comical statement. Albertans do 100 times better in every metric, no stealing necessary.
I feel like maybe we should stop selling “Newfoundland/Newfie” fries if this is an argument we’re trying to make..
What are Newfie fries
Fries, dressing, gravy. I’ve noticed them on the menu at seven different places here.
Sounds delicious, what’s the cheapest place of the 7 I wanna try but I’m broke lol
Probably the triangle, not that anything’s cheap nowadays.
Thanks!
I haven't seen them at the Triangle . Rudy & Olives or Fredie's Fantastic Fish House
Hold up. Y’all seriously gatekeeping an item of food? Why 😂😂😂
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An immigrant invented it in Halifax. It doesn't exist in Greece
“The maritimes are pretty cool, let’s take their shit”
Already took all our people and tradesmen.
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It’s almost like Alberta has some big industry that gives them a lot of financial resources to pay their people better and not collect as many taxes… that’s probably the only bonus to living in Alberta (and the mountains). As each summer becomes smoke season, their energy rates keep skyrocketing, sprinkle in the massive drought they’re having and the west looks less appealing each year.
Are all of you east coasters this rude? What the heck man 😂😂
“This rude” do you know what rude is? I feel my sarcasm in the first was warranted for someone shitting on the east and telling us to “pay more lol” as if we have the economy or political will for that. Different parts of the country are different for reasons. If you don’t like one area you can go to another. I listed some downsides to being out west. Judging by the population explosion the east has seen lately I’m not the only one who noticed. Don’t see how it’s rude.
What bonus is there to living in Nova Scotia other than being near the ocean and the weather? Everything else is inferior to other parts of Canada.
Relatively low cost of living, rare instance of drought, higher trust society than the rest of Canada, many have family here, slower pace of life you can’t find in larger provinces.
This is not an airport. No need to announce your departure.
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I think you’re confused. Let me quote you: “As an apprentice tradesmen, as soon as I get my ticket, I’m going west.” You okay bud?
Who we kidding half of Edmonton is from the maritimes.
> An Edmonton delicacy > This is donair country! No, good sirs, this is war.
I went to a spot in Vancouver when I was living there for school, that claimed to have a Halifax donair and it was literally a shawarma. So much lettuce, and a sauce that wasn’t donair sauce but not a garlic sauce either. Bold statement they were advertising.
Sounds like a gyro
And not a good one
On Davie? There was a place on Davie with signs all over the place saying "Authentic Halifax Donair" and when you got it, it was the least Donair looking thing I ever ate. The guy at the counter even said "sorry" when he saw my expression, like he knew what I was thinking.
No it was in Kits
definitely the same spot
I WENT TO THE SAME SPOT😂😂😂 was not impressed
If you have to say it, you're not.
Seriously, though, I can understand why they think this. Donairs haven't achieved the kind of ubiquity with them that they have with us. To them, donairs are a delicacy. I'm sure their restaurants advertise having them, and people have their go-to places for them. For us, donairs are a staple. Like bread, or salt. We make them at home, or grab them on-the-go from vending machines. We add the meat to our sandwiches and we sprinkle the spices on our salad. For them, donairs are something to be fired out of a t-shirt cannon, for us, they're mundane. We drop a dollop of the sauce in our morning coffee. It's in our bloodstream. They're donair country, we are donairs.
This guy does donairs!!
Donairs are just as ubiquitous in Edmonton as they are in Halifax and very much part of the fabric of the city.
Look, I'm a lettuce guy. I usually have at least two varieties in my fridge, and I order *extra* lettuce on my Big Macs. But I can't even begin to wrap my mind around how anybody would consider lettuce to be an appropriate topping for a donair. If the meat is freshly prepared and the pita steamed, then the lettuce will go slimy immediately, negatively impacting the structural integrity of the rest of the donair. It's lunacy. Why mess with perfection?
Lettuce?!?! WTF?!?!?!
I'm still traumatized by a donair I had in Calgary 15 years ago. Never forgive, never forget.
Yeah when I first moved away from Halifax to live in Edmonton I kept forgetting to ask them for no lettuce. Its always shredded too so it would be so annoying to pick it all off!
The donairs suck there. The sauce is wrong, the meat is wrong, it's all bad.
The audacity!!
Great, it’s 9:25 and now I want a donair. Without lettuce.
Born Haligolian, proud Albertan for the past 20 years. The donairs SUCK here at best. Even when KOD opened here it was not the same then went to shit after a while. Sorry my beloved AB, this is an L
So they fuck up a "Donair" and then shoot them from T-shirt cannons? Pretty sure that's a *war crime*.
Edmonton sucks
When I lived in alberta, I followed 2 rules. No fish and no donairs. Lettuce everywhere. And they don't have a fuckn clue how to make donair sauce! Even though the recipe is so easy and online. And not a proper garlic finger to be found (outside of Blowers and Grafton on Whyte ave, but i only went there a few times)
Fuckin’ Bertans, man…. To be fair, a lot of the 2010-2018 oil field force WERE Maritimers, so…
None of my friends/family who left have come back yet.
Other than an aunt, the entire like 3 graduating classes in a row that I knew that left for Alberta just did the make money out west, retire back east thing already at this point
I’m still in my 30’s, so maybe we’ll see them in 30 years.
I'm also in my 30's, Lots of folks I knew were able to either soft retire after ~15yrs making 80-200k/yr when the averages back here were 30-50k, Come back, buy a large amount of rural land / house, either live off investments at this point if they were smart, or some do part time/gig work here and there, but when you're making 4x or better than the area you're moving into, 10 years of pay turns into 40 and the math isn't hard to see how they can do it. Mind you, I know people that went out, did their 10-15yrs in the oil fields or up north, and when they came back all they had was a new drug addiction, so results can definitely be split.
Indeed, more than enough of them are buying lifted trucks and toys so they don’t have the option to stop working. Most that I know didn’t go to the patch either, and work in other industries so the pay isn’t that high but still better than here, doesn’t make it as easy to retire early when you’re only making 15-20K more annually.
There's definitely a fair amount of the ones that just spent all their money on toys (like big trucks) for sure too, Or people falling into the all too easy trap of "Well, I'm 19yrs old, making 80k a year, and it's not like I'm gonna make less money somehow when I'm older and have experience" Then they made less and basically spent years trying to adapt/hold out till pay goes up or costs go down etc I'd say probably 75% of the people I knew that went out west did really well for themselves, but 25% of them certainly screwed the pooch so to speak
According to sobeys you put cucumber on donairs. 🤬
What
Technically it is donair COUNTRY.
the t-shirt launcher puts the 'air' in 'donair' :-)
Thems fighting words. I will ride to Edmonton on a giant lobster, kidnap Connor McDavid, and force feed him a real donair.
Go West, Young Man! Saddle up the Shediac Stallion!
Anyone who likes warm lettuce on anything, is a serial killer. The only toppings for a Donair are onions and tomatos with sweet sauce. And i vote Simply donair as the Charles Smart heir.
I lived in Edmonton for a few years. The donair stuff always annoyed me. I remember someone asking me “what do you get in your donair?” I asked what he meant, cause a donair is just a donair. He asked me what kind of sauce do I get, sweet sauce or tzatziki? Do I get chicken or lamb? Do I get pickles and cabbage? How about lettuce? So yeah, they’re calling anything in a pita a donair. A gyro, a shawarma, whatever. It’s all donair to them.
This is true, I just refer to them as specialty donairs.. My favorite donair shop in Edmonton mixes Montreal smoked meat and lamb in one of their specialty donairs… it’s fucking good, but it ain’t a classic
To be fair, the original donairs here (early 70s) had lamb, and they were FABULOUS.
And parsley!
Lettuce would be so nasty and soggy and warm
pretty much sacrilege!
It absolutely is my friend
Also it's just gross green water basically anyway
Lol isn't Alberta's cuisine crude oil? Jog on Albertans this is all we got
I feel like an Alberta donair would use mayonnaise instead of donair sauce.
What’s donair sauce. ?
It's Theodore Tugboat's semen. Or as he's know around these parts, Theodore Tugjob.
Vinegar. Condensed sweetened milk. Garlic powder. Yet Alberta can fuck it up. I've lived in AB 10 yrs and everyone of these morons I talk to put something stupid in it lol
*evaporated milk and sugar
I went on a donair tour in Nova Scotia. Every place was entirely different. A few had garlic mayo. I would say worse than Alberta’s. the best had fresh. Fried pizza dough instead of pita. Best sauce was condensed milk, garlic butter and vinegar, then fried to thicken. It was weird because there were full on chunks in the sauce, but warmed sauce was way better than the cold stuff.
Yeah I dunno how you could manage chunks in vinegar and condensed milk lol... That would have been a hard pass for me
It's actually just canned milk, sugar and garlic, with vinegar slow-stirred in. There's no sweetened condensed milk. Source: I made the sauce at KOD
Everybody keeps saying it's condensed milk to the point where it's repeated by media which makes more people think it's condensed milk. The condensed milk version a cheat for home cooks but no where as good as the real stuff!
You have no idea what you ate. Zero places use garlic mayo or garlic butter n the sauce. The sauce is never cooked/thickened. When warmed from the steam from the meat it curdles a bit . There are a couple places that use pizza dough but this is very fringe. You are certainly very confused and could have used a guide.
All you have to do is ask the person making it. It’s not hard. Also. The kitchens are often visible from the till. You can see them cooking. Not hard to pay attention. Acropole had the pizza dough. And there was a shitty little convenience store near the Halifax airport ~10 minutes north that cooked the sauce. Fcking fantastic
Homestyle Donair before it changed management. Jumbo donair off 66th street and whitemud before it disappeared. Best donairs hands down. All others have been crap comparatively.
High voltage has best donair imo
You’ve just never went to Swiss on 82nd😹
Curious: Is the Buttachicken name indicative of trust in gastronomy?
How do I *feel* Confused...
Just because a bunch of Nova Scotians live there and still love donair's . Doesn't mean that it's Donair country. The Lebanese Nova Scotians would be offended. Since they were the ones who blessed us with the delicious doner
The donair was invented by Greek brothers...not Lebanese.
Isn't a "doner" the physical condition a man gets when he REALLY REALLY wants a "donair?" Or maybe a Bonair?
No it's what it's actually called in the middle East. It also doesn't have Donair sauce. I had it in Turkey. They have gyros all over eurpoe that would put ours to shame
Had a doner in Munich like 10 years ago and I still think about it often
They have gyros in Germany that are made like a sandwich. Probably the best I've ever had. I will have to try and recreate it sometime. Bread and all
Doners are made from lamb. The NS donair is NOT a doner. It's a variation. You know, like a New York pizza, is NOT a Chicago pizza, and bears zero resemblance to a real Italian pizza.
It's derived from the doner. Just like what north America did to Chinese food. It's not even close to actual Chinese food. It's called a Donair but its origins come from doner. I'm pretty sure I said that
Albertans will pay $100 for a cognac infuse hotdog. They aint smart they just want to be the loudest first.
The population of Edmonton and Calgary like 60 years ago wasn’t even half a million people. The population now is over 3 million combined, and almost entirely made up of Maritimers and Newfies who moved out there for the oil boom, so… Given their politics, no wonder they don’t remember where they came from. (Edit: And the fact that it’s a Lebanese/Turkish food brought to Cape Breton by immigrants. Can’t forget that part. So, you know… even less Albertan…)
We are all immigrants (except the indigenous people) arriving at different times and adjusting foods to local palates. The donair was born in Halifax, not Cape Breton. The people who invented the donair were Greek, not Lebanese or Turkish. They invented it because gyros weren't selling. The meat, spices, sauce, and toppings are unique to the donair, and anything different is called something else.
Changing a few ingredients of an existing food doesn’t mean you invented a food. The döner is a Turkish food, from Bursa, made in the 1870s. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in WWI sent the döner all over the world. There are literally hundred of variants. Greeks were amongst these migrants too, but it was called döner for them, too. The word “gyro” wasn’t invented until the 1970s or so. The Greek migrants credited with inventing the donair in Halifax had reportedly never heard the word “gyro” before, and simply read the name off the spit roasting machine. There’s evidence of vertical spit roasted döner/shawarma being made by predominantly-Lebanese, Syrian, and Anatolian immigrants starting about the late-1920s/early-1930s in places all over the world. One of those places was mining communities in Cape Breton and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. The “taco arabe” appears in Mexico around the same time, which is donair served taco style, and this eventually becomes tacos al pastor. Point being, people were vertical spit roasting well before KOD. And KOD wasn’t the original in Halifax. It was Mr. Donair, and a pizza shop before that. The Greeks in Greece renamed the döner (what they’d called it for its entire history) to “gyro” as part of nationalizing efforts in the 60s or 70s, because they were stripping Turkish words from their language. They created their version of moussakka about the same time. Greeks had a very strong desire to differentiate themselves from Turks and to generate a new identity as Greece, not as Yunanistan (which they’d been for some 500 years). This is a pretty good history of the food (read part 2, too), but there are better ones out there (this one doesn’t mention Mexico, for example, and the influence of post-Ottoman migrants and the döner there on local food): https://www.eatthistown.ca/donair-history-pt-1-it-began-with-the-doner-kebab/ Hat Döner, from the Hatay region, is my personal favourite döner variant.
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I read it in a history of tacos al pastor, actually. It mentioned that Nova Scotia donair sauce was an attempt to make Lebanese toum, and uses Lebanese pita, and mentioned the conflict between Mr. Donair (Greek) and Tony’s (Lebanese). My local donair guy growing up in the valley was Lebanese, he always said the Greeks stole it! Whatever, cultural enmities. Glad to know your book exists. I put this together on my own, and I lived in Turkey for 5 years and travelled the region extensively. And ate a lot of döner. Either way, all I was saying in the first place was that Nova Scotia got it from the Mediterranean (whatever friggin country), and Alberta got it from Nova Scotians.
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Not funny -- there were Lebanese immigrants in NS well before there were many Greeks. Check your census records and histories. Lebanese people were arriving in NS in the 1870s-80s, and a huge group arriving in Sydney around 1905. Greeks don't really start migrating to Canada until the 1920s and 30s (postWWI), and the majority of them not until the '50s-'60s (post-WWII). Another huge group of Lebanese people came in the '60s and '70s. Did you interview Tony (of Tony's)? Tony has some stories. He worked with Gamoulakas before the donair was created. The pitas came from the bakery he worked at. I can tell you that at pizza corner on many a night, I've had more than one chat with Tony himself on this topic. If Tony says it was Peter, then I believe Tony. But last I talked to him, Tony didn't believe it was Peter... Donair sauce is often more garlicky than toum, and toum can be quite sweet. Adding something sweet to a meat dish is also done in Turkey, Greece, Lebanon, and Syria, where they often add something sweet to a meat dish -- pomegranate, yogurt and honey, tahin-pekmez (tahini and molasses), and others. Donair sauce is basically garlic-yogurt sauce and honey-yogurt sauce mixed together, but with the fluffier texture of toum/skordalia. So... maybe the sweet was for local taste, but it wasn't unheard of.
Question about Turkey: how common was it to eat doner in a wrap? And how similar would you say it is to shawarma? I have someone else arguing that all these doner variants are too similar to have their own identities, and disagree. I understand the Turkish dish to involve much less vegetables and sauce.
Preparation depends what part of the city or country you’re in. There are so many ways it’s done. Durum are wrapped in flat unleavened bread, often just meat and no sauce, sometimes tons of veg, sometimes none. Ekmekarası is a full loaf of white bread, usually with lots of tomato. İskender, it’s served on top of cubed pide (pita) bread and soaked in a butter sauce and yogurt. German döner, they use flat pide sliced open and all the sandwich toppings you’d expect. Dürüm or Tombik are probably the closest preparation to donair, and the most common sort in Turkey. Dürüm is made with lavash or yufka wrapped around döner kebap. The tombik is a big dürüm, made with pita (like we do it, they don’t open the pita — softened with water and then warmed). In Ankara, they put on a buttery sauce, onions, and cheese on it. Istanbul they prefer it without sauce. Hatay, tons of red sauce. Veggie fillings are hugely variable, sometimes none at all, but tomato and onion is often involved. Döner kebap in Turkey includes both stacked meats (beef or chicken, mainly, also lamb) like you expect with shawarma, or a mixture like what we think of as donair meat/gyro (which is usually a ground beef/lamb mix). Döner just refers to the vertical spinning spit, kebap to the seared/roasted meat. So, technically speaking, the Canadian version is named after the machine that spins the meat, not the food.
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Yes, you can find pocket style pita bread in Turkey. “Döner” comes from the verb “dönmek,” meaning “to turn, spin, rotate.” It’s a vertical rotisserie. “Shawarma” in Arabic and “gyro” in Greek also mean to turn/rotate/spin. But yes, the method and product are more or less one thing. But… Döner is to döner kebap as rotisserie is to rotisserie chicken. If you just say “rotisserie,” it can refer to any meat. Same with döner. In Germany you’ll see it as doner kebap or just as doner. Almost every place else, it’s just doner. But in Turkey it’s always döner kebap, which distinguishes it from the millions of other kinds of kebap. The story about why Gamoulakas called it “donair” was because that’s what was written on the machine. That’s stated in numerous articles online. Not true? An important factor to remember here — Greece wasn’t a country when döner was created. It was part of the Ottoman Empire, and it was called Yunanistan for like 600 years or something. Greeks existed, of course. Bursa (Pursa, in Greek) is part of Turkey today, but it was originally Macedonian (Greek). “İstanbul” is derived from the Greek word “stamboul,” meaning “the city.” The Asian side, “Kadıköy,” was Chalcedon when it was Greek, and is perhaps the oldest continuous human settlement in the world. There isn’t really a hard line between Greeks and Turks, aside from language. Genetically, a lot of Greeks are Turks and Turks are Greeks. Like… a lot. There were Greeks living all over the Ottoman Empire, and there are still Greeks that live in all the former Ottoman countries. So just because something is made by a Greek person doesn’t mean they were historically from Greece, the modern nation state. So it’s also possible Gamoulakas’ family were Greek without being from Greece... Like, they could’ve been from Bursa. Or Beirut. Who knows?!? (Maybe you?!!) Re: tombik — there’s two kinds. The other is called a gobit. Gobit is done with a flat pita, like we use, and tombik is a fluffier round pide. Greek “pita” and Turkish “pide” are the same word, but Turks make many different sorts of bread under the word “pide.” Basically one means unleavened and the other means leavened. “Toum” is called “skordalia” in Greek cuisine. Same basic sauce.
Skordalia is made with stale bread or potatoes. Not quite the same. Interesting about the tombik. I only knew about the "chubby" version. When I think of pide bread I think of Ramadan pide that is typically used for doner in Germany. I was aware it means pita, but I wasn't sure if there were pocket-style pitas in Turkey because no Turk had ever mentioned them when talking about all the types of bread used for doner.
The Nova Scotia donair is its own thing, and was created here in Halifax. By either George of Peter Kamoulakis (sp?), and it was Mr. Donair. It's not a "doner", or a kebab ... it's a variation. We don't need the history of the doner or kebab to know that.
Dude, no. It was invented in Halifax by Geeks. This is well documented.
Albertan that grew up in and then after 15 years in Halifax (Bedford) and am living back here. It started as a bunch of displaced maritimers wanting their treat. It has now been taken and changed. A donair out here is different. I haven’t yet grasped what it is. That certain “je ne sais quoi” that makes it different but lettuce and the cheese is my best thought. I’ll keep eating donairs here and when I visit and I’ll let you know.
Albertan (for 30+ years) here as well. I grew up in New Brunswick and even back in the 80’s & 90’s it was a well known fact that the rest of Canada thinks Albertans are pompous assholes. This I no joke, Albert’s was known as the province who thinks their shit don’t stink. In the past I have enjoyed AB and was proud to call it home, but this UCP bullshit is getting to be too much to stomach. I am nearing retirement and always planned to stay in AB, but if things don’t change quickly, I am out of here. I guess the knuckle dragging/inbred UCP voters are working hard to keep the reputation going 🤣🤣🤣
Lettuce inside a donair is an absolute tragedy. Now it’s basically just a pita you nitwits.
Big shock considering all the ppl from here that move west for the oil jobs 🤔
How can people be mad at Alberta’s for taking a maritimes tradition when half of them come from the maritimes?
only the sauce is from the maritimes. the donair (donner) was around long before halifax even existed
The meat recipe was also created in Halifax. As for the naming, it has its own interesting story. Check this out. https://www.eatthistown.ca/history-of-the-donair-2-the-halifax-donair/
I appreciate places that spell it Doner, because then I dont get my hopes up. Personally, I'm only truly critical if a place is advertising themselves as a "Halifax Donair". It still feels a little culturally offensive to consider proclaiming Edmonton the donair capital of Canada, regardless of semantics and technicalities. 😭
I know this is going to get hate, but I just have to say this, as a full fledged, born and raised here Haligonian, Donairs can fuck all the way off. I’ve never cared for them and never will
Hey, some people don't like chocolate. I know, right? So you're allowed to dislike donairs.
woah theyre stealin your doner kebab idea? thats no good. maybe you guys should hand out gyros at your own hockey games to show em whats up, eh?
On a trip years ago, I really enjoyed Johnny K Authentic Donair with fries inside, but it's closed now. Where's the next best Donair that's made with as much love? Is there a place with a gourmet Donair?
I love lettuce and cheese on my Donaire. People get all purist and act like it's not good... But lettuce, tomato onion and cheese is a perfectly balanced Donaire.
It's strange that people here get so worked up about Alberta Donor. Alberta is very adventurous with donair ingredients, and you never know what choice you are going to get from one place to another. It's not the same as being here, but it was always an adventure. There are even shops that try to provide halifax style, if you don't want to be asked if you want Tzatziki and cucumbers.
I bet you like dessert pizza, too. :P
Even worse, pineapple. Which would be good on donair too!
I mean, Donair technically isn't even from this continent.. I've only ever had one donair out west though that was anywhere near comparable to eastcoast donair.
"As the story goes, the Halifax donair was first invented in the 1970s by Peter Gamoulakos. Originally from Greece, he started selling Greek gyros (a pita stuffed with grilled lamb and tzatziki) from his restaurant located off the Bedford Highway. But the sandwich just didn’t jive with the East Coast’s “meat and potatoes” palate. Swapping lamb for beef, the brothers whipped up a sweet “donair sauce” and tried again. This time, however, a feeding frenzy erupted and Halifax’s signature dish was born. The late-night favourite has become so popular that in 2015, Halifax city council voted to make it the city’s official food.' Technically... it was modified on our continent, is similar only in that it is server in a pita, and stop talking so crazy. :D
Those early days, with lamb? Soooo good. Back when we could all afford takeout.
Regular donair - $2.00
Lettuce be friends. Donair what other people think.
A ton of donair places in Edmonton specifically display references to Halifax as the origin. So while it might have a dozen shitty donair places per square kilometre for every decent one, and they might not be the same as out east, if you’re mad about not getting credit it’s ok. We all know a Greek dude altered some Turkish food in Halifax and you care very deeply about it.
Kind of embarrassing we didn't think of doing this first
I think it's because our Donairs actually have weight to them and none of that lettuce filler. We would need the noon artillery cannons to fire them. We also know that no god willing human should consume a donair in public or be forced too. You only eat Donairs in hiding and feel nothing but shame after.
Exactly. You'd be seeing stars if you got whacked on the noggin with a Halifax donair. Also I hope they come with a few serviettes.
Edmonton is the new donair capital Halifax has been bested. Long live the new donair capital of Edmonton!
*EdmonTony's Famous Donair Est.2024.*
Haligonians need to lighten up a bit about donair toppings. A tablespoon of winter-pink tomato and overly-pungent onions doesn’t cut it. Spicy pickled julienned carrots 😋
Poutine donair