Friday 14 August 2015

Middle Eastern Cuisine: Mr. Shawerma

If you are not familiar with Gurney Paragon in Penang, then you may ask....
Who is Mr. Shawerma? Handsome a? Tall guy? (haha.. stupid me!)
That's my first response when I heard about it. My Caucasian colleague was the one who started with this Mr. Shawerma, saying she was going that for her lunch. I remember at that time I couldn't got the pronunciation right. Mr Shuma? Mr Shuem? Mr Shuarme?

Wrong!! is Mr. SHA-WER-MA
"Shawerma" in Arabic means meat preparation. So, you will see meat as the main ingredients, basically, they only serve chicken and lamb. Ta da~~~Here I introduced you the handsome, black bearded Mr. Shawerma!
Mr. Shawerma is a middle-east cuisine food stall in Just Food court in Gurney Paragon, a high end food court.

The owner found that I was capturing the photo, he reacted so fast and gave me an appealing smile. XP
You may go ahead and chit chat with them, they are quite friendly.

WOW~~ Middle Eastern KEBAB !! Looks so yummy right? 
Look at that 360 degree kebab stove, slowly turn and turn for 360 degree to produce perfectly golden brown grilled meat. It definitely appetizing!

**Unlike deep frying, grilling is one of the healthy cooking methods that produces lower-calorie food, which is always a better choice for people who wish to manage their weight wisely. Why? Simple reason, no oil is added during the cooking process. But of course, some people may be afraid of the issue of cancer-potentially compounds.

Well, I would say NO FOOD IS PERFECT in this world. Everything is GOOD AT MODERATION.

We have too much to worry about that if we were to be that picky. There are also other risk factors for cancer, which one of the scientifically proven one is OBESITY.**
Now, let's take a look on what they have...


I'm not a Biryani fans, the portion is just way too much for me. 
Yet, it's very hard to share especially with this little vegetables served. T.T
**Chicken is known as white meat, lower in cholesterol level compared to red meat. Apparently, chicken has shown to a healthy complete protein (all animal proteins are complete) source, especially to non-vegetarian who has high cholesterol and at risk for heart disease. Having it 2-3 times in a week should be fine for healthy individuals.

Question now.. How much should you consume everytime? Continue reading, and you'll find the answer. **
This looks like our Chinese chicken rice, don't you think so? 
But, its portion is like serving 2 plates of Chines chicken rice.



Despite of its higher in price, its portion is pretty big even for a man. 
I would say, the portion served is always enough for about 2 persons, kind a meeting the recommendations for MyPlate. Oh ya, you need a fruit to have a complete MyPlate, the latest food intake recommendations by US.
**Right, remember the question earlier? The chicken should portioned at PROTEIN (maximum, of course you can mix up that part for a mixed of choices) for every meal you consume.

Though MyPlate is designed for US population, it's also applicable to most Asians too. Let's ask this question, how many of us comply this for our plate? I guess most of Malaysians would have a full plate of rice with topping of half plate protein plus a little corner of veges. So now, take a look of people who walk down the street or sitting beside you, how many are obese?

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT!**

Shawerma Platter is always my favourite whenever I visit the stall. It's just nice to be shared by 2 persons. (Sharing is caring. Share your calories with someone else!) Look! They have two plates of food for only RM21! I personally feel it's worth for its portion, healthy and balanced meal served (Bonus point: all chicken meat are lean!)
(p/s: the other plate was belonged to my another colleague. We all became a big fan of this)
The dressing is always served separately. They have different types of sauces/dressings namely Hummus (slightly yellowish, made from chickpea), Aioli (white) and Muhammara (red one with olives served).

**Separating the dressing gives you an option on how much dressing do you want to add in. As far as weight concern, you may also need to watch out dressing consumption. Hummus serves as spread that goes with crackers or tortilla (any wholegrains). The combination then make up complementary protein that provides all essential amino acids for our body.**

Alternatively, for spicy eaters like me, you can ask for this specially made chili sauce. I guess they called it Skhug (mainly using hot pepper). I love this!
I love eating this way.
Put everything in and wrap with the tortilla.
Light, healthy and yummy.
Most of you may know where to find this place. 
Just in case you're not aware of this, you could reach them here:
Just Food at Level 5 
(their stall is the first one if you are coming from the interior part of the mall)

Enjoy your health and yummy food!





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