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Comment by TFNA | Hacker News Reader

Visit the Levant and see real traditionally prepared shwarma. It is distinct cuts of meat put one by one onto a skewer. The meat is identifiable as actual muscle tissue of a particular animal.

Döner kebab in much of Europe is meat of dubious origin that has been industrially processed into a homogenized mass. Again, it is essentially a very large hot dog.

You can continue to eat that and enjoy it if you want, but to criticize the "elephant leg" moniker and claim it is "just shwarma" doesn't suggest you have much experience with this cuisine, just as your remark elsewhere about "criminal bankers" in a Nordic country (lol) doesn't suggest much experience with the world in general.

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"Elephant leg" is something only someone who's ignorant would call it.

> essentially a very large hot dog

Just like most German food!

Are you neuroatypical in a way that makes it hard for you to grasp humorous coinages and why people find enjoyment in them? "Elephant's leg" is a bog-standard one. Calling people who use it "ignorant" raises more questions about you than it successfully casts aspersions on them.

I don't find insulting another ethnicity's cuisine "humorous" at all. I find it to be typical of many Brits though. Tone deaf and crass culture.

No one here is insulting another ethnicity's cuisine, they are criticizing the quality of the meat that an eatery serves when it ostensibly is serving that cuisine. Notice how a parallel thread here is all about how to find better-quality kebab than elephant's leg, so people obviously want the ethnicity's cuisine. (And as someone from the European continent, I have heard "elephant's leg" locally, it is not just a Brit thing.)

Nevermind that across Europe, the workers hired to run elephant-leg döner joints for absentee owners are often from the Indian Subcontinent. It is not even their own ethnicity's cuisine, it's just the work they could get.

Again, your failure to understand these basic facts and propensity to misinterpret your interlocutors is baffling.

As the sibling poster said, this isn't insulting another ethnicity's cuisine, it's insulting the quality of the product on offer in much of the UK.

I'd invite you to do a comparison. Here is a picture of a 'real' doner kebab or shwarma style kebab, raw - https://www.jidlonacestach.cz/data/obrazky/2026/01/pripraven...

Notice the recognisable layers of meat and fat, the cap of fat to melt in and keep it all moist.

Now here is what you're more likely to get in most generic UK high-street kebab shops - https://www.kirkskebabs.co.uk/raw-kebab-meat/

Notice the homogenous, pink-slime sorta texture going on? And take a look at those ingredients...

Now, if you're going to places serving the former, cool! That's probably some tasty eating. But the latter is why kebab shops in the UK are held in such low regard.

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