From the artisanal Smashburger to the haute dog: almost every category of fast food has been given a glam-up in recent years. Now it’s the favorite among late-night fatty snacks. We discovered three restaurants where kebab making is a craft.
Ninja, Antwerp
Since Ninja opened in Antwerp South, it has been a real attraction for kebab fanatics from home and abroad. This artisanal kebab shop does not take reservations, which results in impressive queues. “No one gets priority: I also queue up with my sons at the weekend,” laughs co-manager Ugur Akkus. Together with Jules Koninckx (chief butcher and the man behind meat restaurant Maven) and catering group Shrimp Tempura, he decided to do justice to the cuisine of Turkey with an artisanal kebab shop.
“I couldn’t find a place where I could eat kebab as I remember it from Turkey,” says Ugur. ‘I went to Istanbul with Jules to show him what I was talking about. We ate in authentic places where the meat was roasted by a chef over a wood fire and he was immediately sold.’
“In Belgium, kebab has a bad name: it has become unhealthy fast food here,” Jules agrees. ‘Everything is purchased ready-made, frozen and often full of preservatives. We wanted to approach it radically differently.’
‘In our kitchen there is a Syrian bread oven where loaves of bread are baked à la minute against the hot stone wall. So we don’t use typical Turkish breads, but we do use thin lavash, so the meal doesn’t become too heavy. The homemade meat skewers are roasted in front of a wood fire, which produces a rich, smoky taste. The proportions of the meat are also careful: we use a mix of beef, lamb and fat. After marinating – a simple marinade of yoghurt, onion and herbs – we manually stack everything on the skewer. Without minced meat to hold everything together: that’s cheap and easy, but by no means authentic.’
‘Certainly in the beginning we were often sold out: if you have stood in line for an hour, that is of course a disappointment. It’s because we make the skewers fresh and we can’t just add them quickly.’
What we serve is extremely labor-intensive: it seems simple, but it is not.
In its simplest form you get a plate of grilled meat, fresh flat bread and some fresh onion with sumac. ‘You don’t get any frying sauces with our kebab,’ says Ugur, ‘but there is a fresh yoghurt sauce and a spicy sauce on the table for those who like it. Do you want it a little creamier? Then you order a plate of hummus, a Turkish yoghurt dip or a sauce based on grilled vegetables.’
‘A bestseller is our Iskender, virtually the national dish of Turkey: pieces of crispy flat bread, grilled meat, sweet tomato sauce, melted butter and fresh Turkish yogurt, served on a typical copper dish. I never thought this classic would appeal to so many people, but once you’ve eaten it, you’ll want to taste it again and again.’
‘People sometimes dare to complain about the price,’ says Jules, ‘especially if they haven’t eaten here yet. But what we serve is extremely labor intensive: it seems simple, but it isn’t! Of course you can eat cheaper kebabs, and you should do so if you feel like it. Here you come for a healthy, original version of kebab and leave the table feeling good.’
“Because we are not in a Turkish neighborhood, we get an interesting mix in our audience,” Ugur notes. ‘The Turkish community enjoys traveling for good food, and people even drive here from abroad. But even those who don’t know the kitchen well are enthusiastic. Ninja is a place that people like to share on social media, I’m pleased that kebab is being shown in a positive light in this way.’
Vlaamsekaai 52, 2000 Antwerp, @ninja.antwerp
Panam, Ixelles
A luxury kebab shop: Sebastien de Bergeyck is the first in Brussels, but in Paris – where he lived – he had seen this trend growing for years. “I love the idea of taking a simple bite to the next level by using top quality ingredients,” says Sebastien. The type of kebab he serves originates in Berlin.
‘This is extremely popular in the German capital: there are more than a thousand kebab shops in the city. The Berlin version of kebab is inspired by the Turkish original and developed by a number of German-Turkish chefs in the 1970s. It is special because it also contains roasted vegetables such as aubergines, zucchini and peppers. A delicious savory topping of crumbled feta and lots of fresh, crunchy vegetables such as cabbage, cucumber and pickled onion are also typical of a Berlin kebab.’
In the white tiled canteen of Panam you are served a version with chicken, falafel or grilled halloumi. ‘We want to make the offering accessible to everyone, which is why we have two vegetarian options and opt for poultry. We make the falafel ourselves and it is completely vegetable. We choose a Belgian halloumi, which is less salty and made from local milk. We marinate the chicken ourselves every day and put it on a skewer: a meticulous job that you cannot outsource to everyone. We also make the three sauces in-house – a fresh yoghurt sauce with green herbs, an aioli with candied garlic and a spicy sauce.’
‘French fries cannot be missed: we bake thin fries here that we cut by hand. A Belgian cannot eat his kebab without a portion of fries, but that is also a classic combination in Berlin.
For the bread we work together with the cult bakery Renard, here in Ixelles. They bake their interpretation of a soft Turkish bread especially for us. The drinks are also as local as possible – except for the Fritz Cola, which comes from Germany, they are all made in Belgium. For example, we are proud of the kombucha from Rish, an artisanal fermentation workshop from Brussels.
In the beginning I did get comments about the price. A kebab is still considered a cheap snack, but I am confident that the gourmet kebab, just like the haute dog or the popular smash burgers, will soon be mainstream. After all, who would have ever thought that we would pay fifteen euros for a hamburger? By now, every foodie knows the difference between an artisanal Smashburger and a cheap fast-food burger. I am confident that the artisanal kebab will fare the same way. When people taste it, they are usually immediately convinced.’
At first I received comments about the price.
‘Initially I didn’t think about the discussion around cultural appropriation: I simply thought it was a cool concept that I wanted to shape in my own way, without the pretense that I would make Turkish cuisine my own. But talking about it with different people made me think about it more: kebab is of course a dish that does not come from my own culinary tradition. Still, I think it would be a shame if only Italians were allowed to bake pizza or only Turks could make kebab. In Panam, people from the Turkish community often come to eat, I also talk about it with them and I hardly get any negative reactions.’
Fernand Cocqplein 14, 1050 Ixelles, @panam.kebab
Snack Aydin, Hasselt
Almost forty years ago, in 1985, Gokten Aydin’s father opened the original branch of Snack Aydin on the Kempische Steenweg in Hasselt. “At that time, a kebab shop was still something very exotic,” says Gokten. ‘There were only a few other places in Belgium where you could eat kebab. In Beringen at the mine, for example, always in places where many people with Turkish roots lived or worked. I couldn’t imagine then that kebab shops would become as widespread as deep fryers: now you can find them brotherly next to each other on every Flemish road.’
When he was nineteen, Gokten started helping his father in the business that he would later take over and where his brothers and eldest son also participate. They are open every day of the week from half past eleven in the morning to half past eleven at night. ‘Snack Aydin is now an institution in Hasselt, but when my father started, it took a while before things started to get going. The internet didn’t exist yet and we had to rely on word of mouth. I am still pleasantly surprised when, for example, an older couple comes in to order a kebab: this Turkish street food has become so established that our audience has become super diverse.’
“Time has stood still here, in a good way,” says Gokten. ‘Everything has remained the same as when my father worked here.’ He and his team still make the skewers of meat that are grilled here every day themselves.
Everything has remained the same as when my father worked here.
‘We buy fresh beef that we cut into thin slices ourselves. We mix it with the marinade, the recipe for which I got from my father, and let it rest for about twenty hours. Then we stack the steaks on the skewer: that may seem simple, but it is a real craft. The pieces that you cut off to get a nice shape are put back into the skewer: this way no meat is lost. Getting a nice shape without minced meat or other tricks: that is the art. By purchasing the meat fresh and working it ourselves, we keep a strict eye on the quality. Many businesses buy the skewers frozen, so you have no control over which meat you serve. I want to know what our customers eat. In addition to beef, we always make a skewer with chicken, for those who like that better.’
The grilled meat ends up in a fresh bun. ‘Baked by the same baker for almost forty years. We use pide, an oval flat bread that is nice and soft. We use the bread that remains to make breadcrumbs for our kofte. I learned the recipe for these spicy meatballs from my mother. We also prepare the sauces for the kebabs ourselves: a spicy garlic sauce with fresh garlic and a popular cocktail sauce. We cut the meat in the traditional way with a knife. I recently bought an electric cutting machine for my son so that he can help when the business is very busy.’
Snack Aydin, Kempische Steenweg 39, 3500 Hasselt, @snackaydinhasselt
