MIDDLE-EASTERN KEBABS

Although Kebabs are the pride of the Middle East and also find a place in the hearts of every Indian, one theory claims that the dish itself was invented during the Medieval Era in Turkey. The story says that in order to save meat during their travels, the soldiers cut it up in small pieces, grilled it on their swords and ate it with some bread. However, curiously, the term ‘kebab’ is said to have originated from the Arabic ‘kabāb’ which means to char or burn, while the Turkish version of the term is ‘kebap’. Still, it’s hard to trace the origins of kebabs in general, since this over-arching dish has many, many different forms, from the shami kebab (which reportedly comes from Pakistan) to the shish kebab to the typically Indian hara bhara kebab.The people who believe kebabs come from Turkey insist that soldiers used to grill chunks of freshly hunted animals skewed on swords on open field fires.The name was firstly discovered in a Turkish script of Kyssa-i Yusuf in 1377, which is the oldest known source where kebab is stated as a food item.