re: #317 The Ghost of a Flea

Al pastor is Mexican shwarma.

Literally. A vertical spit loaded with marinated meat, rotated while carving off crisped exterior was carried from Lebanon to Mexico, and over time the ingredients changed until it was pork marinated in a wet annatto-heavy spice mix instead of lamb in a drier, herby mix, corn flatbread instead of wheat, salsa instead of toum, et cetera.

They affix a trimmed cylinder of pineapple at the top of the trompo (loaded spit), and skilled chefs learn to cut thin slices of the pork into a small tortilla, then cut a slice of pineapple with a knife-flick such that the sliver lands in the taco held in their off hand.

When Arby’s first opened during the Pliocene, it was essentially a schwarma stand, but with “beef”. We loved them then, then they changed for the worse but now they are back with the best (only) gyro in town. (That’s “schwarma from the walk-in cooler”.)