Germany's Favorite Fast Food: The Delicious Turkish D�ner Kebab

Sure this is the land of Beethoven and Goethe and Sauerkraut and Bier and those goofy Lederhosen and the Dirndls and all of that, but one more important cliché has yet to be added to the list: When it comes to classic German fast food, nothing tops a good Turkish Döner Kebab. As a matter of fact, it's the most popular fast food in the country today.

When you come to visit Germany, you will quickly realize that not even the smallest backwoods Dorf can do without having at least one Turkish Imbiss (fast food stand) in town. And I will even go out on a limb and predict the name of the place, too: The top five Turkish Imbiss names in Germany at the moment are Ali Baba, Istanbul, City Döner, Sultan and Bosporus. I'll bet on Istanbul.

Once you move on to the bigger German cities, however, all bets are off. There are over 1,500 Döner shops in Berlin alone, for instance. That's more than there are in the real Instanbul (Berlin is one of the most populous "Turkish" cities in the world, believe it or not).

A Döner (from dönmek: to turn) Kebab (grilled or roasted) is basically nothing more than a big pocket of Turkish bread filled with spicy grilled lamb or other delicious meats mixed up with onions, salad and a variety of yogurt-like sauces. A Turkish cook came up with the idea to roast the meat vertically on a spit about two hundred years ago and the spit is keeps turning to this very day - though now the grilling is usually being done with the use of compact, electric heating elements.

Turkish "guest workers" introduced the Döner to Germany in the early 1970s and it soon progressed from exotic specialty to Teutonic fast food par excellence. And its popularity has grown steadily over the years. Today Germans consume some 800 million Döner Kebab a year - of course the millions of Turkish residents living in Germany have also done their fair share in aiding their German friends in establishing this awesome statistic.

That comes out to be over two pounds or roughly five Döner per year per person here. The sales come in somewhere around 2 billion Euros annually - that's more than the sales of the German McDonald's and Burger King chains combined. The humble Döner has even dethroned the classic and proud German Bratwurst (or Currywurst in Berlin) from its pedestal and is now indisputably the most typical German fast food there is. I mean, hello, is nothing sacred?

By the way, when you come to Germany, make sure to order your first Döner Kebab when you come to Berlin. I have it from some very reliable sources (I happen to be one of them) that the best Döner Kebab in all of Germany is to be had here. Oh doch, doch! What? You don't believe me? Why I'll bet you my bottom Döner that you will immediately change your mind after tying out just one of the following places:

Hasir
Adalbertstraße 10
10999 Berlin-Kreuzberg

Die Wunderlampe
Warschauer Straße 57
10247 Berlin-Friedrichshain

Primavera
Steglitzer Damm 2
12169 Berlin-Steglitz

Balli Döner
Tempelhofer Damm 146
12099 Berlin-Tempelhof

Bosporus Grill
Schönhauser Allee 72
10437 Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg