Unique Canada: "The Donair"
12. Mar, 2010 
12 Comments
Guest Post by Cailin O’Neil. Aside from being fabulously Canadian, Cailin is the woman behind Travel Yourself,a television show about just that, traveling yourself. You can follow Cailin’s adventures on her website or on Twitter @travelyourself
Each month Spunky Girl Monologues is planning on doing a post on unique Canadian experiences, places to see and things to do. I chose for my guest post to feature the lovely “Donair”. Not to be confused with a doner, gyro, shawarma, kebab or a doner kebab, I’m talking about a DONAIR (pronounced “doh-nair”).
Claimed to originally have been created and brought over from Greece by the owners of King of Donair here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
K.O.D.’s roots reach back to a small tavern in Greece, where
the donair recipe was conceived and brought to North America. Our Quinpool Road
location in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was the first to introduce this great concept to Canada
in 1973 and that original secret recipe along with fresh, lean ground beef is still used in
all our locations on a daily basis.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXtXtGNv20o]
The donair is sold all throughout Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada in any typical pizza shop, they pretty much go hand and hand. Actually now that I say that I don’t think I can think of a pizza place around here that doesn’t also sell donair! It is a mix of beef, spices and other things cooked on a spit and shaved off in slices most commonly wrapped in pita bread with onions, tomato & donair sauce. (The ingredients of the sauce consist of 1 can of evaporated milk, white sugar, garlic powder and white vinegar.) Hmmmm interested yet? Let’s just say if you are on a diet this might not be the food for you…
“Halifax donairs are characterized mostly by their distinctive sauce, made from condensed milk, sugar, and vinegar.” www.wikipedia.com
In recent years the way donairs are eaten have been changed and varied upon with people now being able to find donair meat on their pizza, in a sub, egg rolls you name it people will eat it. Also you will find the sauce popping up in different places as well, as a dip for garlic fingers or even poured on top of your pepperoni pizza!
As long as I can remember I’ve always been a big fan of the donair but try to limit myself to only 1 every few months, there is one place I get them from in Halifax where they make my donair just right – laid out on a sub bun with mozzeralla cheese, sauce, tomato and onions then grilled open faced in an oven, omg omg to die for! Goes down great with a can of diet coke! Highly recommended if you ever have a trip to Atlantic Canada.
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Omg! I had NO idea K.O.D was the original donair place…it was the only pizza joint I visited in halifax, and then I kept referring to it as “KOD” all weekend. AND I have veggie pizza, haha. I’m not a huge fan…the fat-bubbling meat stick kinda grosses me out.
But you know what’s amazing? Garlic fingers dipped in donair sauce. Mmmmm.
*had veggie pizza. I was seeking veggie corner.
I mean pizza corner. WTF is wrong with me?
LMAO! Having a happy Friday Candice? I have to admit, I love donair and gyros. What are garlic fingers? I assume it’s something like garlic breadsticks…?
Omg!
http://www.halifaxdonairandpizza.com/assets/images/autogen/a_Garlic_Fingers.gif
Except imagine them greasier and cheesier. When you get here, we’re going out for some. And also, poutine with dressing.
I think I may need to fast for like a week before coming to NFLD!! Those look super yummy.
You can drop me in the “I had no idea donairs were Canadian, let alone Atlantic Canadian” camp.
Come to think of it, I don’t see donair posters out in Vancouver, but I used to see them in Ontario all the time.
You’re right, they do have Donair in Ontario. I remember going to the local mall- which was quite pathetic, and having a donair at a little cafe. Whether they’re the same as the ones in Atlantic Canada, I’m not sure.
Now I’m hungry. I’ll have to head up to Canada I suppose.
Um, I love kebabs (doner or otherwise). Had no idea that this existed.
This does look pretty delicious. The likelihood of me getting a doner kebab after drinking tonight has just increased by 60%!
Being from Nova Scotia and now in Ontario I would say they are uniquely Atlantic Canadian rather than Canadian.
In Toronto I see all kinds of doner/donar/donair signs but none of them use donair sauce except one place called College Falafel and she got the sauce from KOD.
But I’ll caveat that she uses the right sauce but tries to make the donair healthy with ingredients other than tomatoes and onion. It’s a nice try but not 100% authentic.
Ah one of Canada’s best dishes! Although it does require heavy duty mouthwash for the bad breath factor…or consuming lots of beer with it…nothing like it to cure a hangover or prevent one after a good night on the bars…