It’s All Geek To Me: Shawarma
Whether we’re talking Boom Tubes or retcons, there’s plenty of jargon in our geekcentric little world. The PoP! Stars are here to ensure you’re not left scratching your head, saying “It’s All Geek to Me.”
sha-war-ma [shä-ˈwȯr-mə, ˈshwȯr-mə]
-noun
1. a sandwich especially of sliced lamb or chicken, vegetables, and often tahini wrapped in pita bread: You ever try Shawarma? There’s a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don’t what it is, but I want to try it.” –Tony Stark, The Avengers
Origin: Levantine Arabic shāwurma sliced lamb on a skewer, from Turkish çevirme, literally, turn, rotation, from çevir- turn. It is similar to the dish called döner kebab, “turning kebab”, in Turkish, and the Greek gyros, “turned”, formerly called ντονέρ /doˈner/. A related Armenian dish is tarna, literally meaning “to turn”.
First Known Use: 1953
For all of the overt and ham-handed product placement in film and television these days, such as Shane’s Hyundai Tucson in AMC’s The Walking Dead, the Mountain Dew Decepticon in Transformers, or even Iron Man‘s Tony Stark chowing down on The King after his escape from the Ten Rings, Marvel’s The Avengers managed to organically raise the profile of food-cart favorite shawarma thanks to the crowd-pleasing end credits scene featuring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes stuffing their faces in silence. All without having a hand in the back pocket of Big Shawarma!
The final scene, which was shot on April 12th, just three weeks before the film’s record-breaking domestic debut, spun-off from an improvised line by Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark following the film’s climactic battle. The team sits silently in a damaged shawarma joint, chowing down on the Middle-Eastern treat while the staff sweeps up final battle rubble. Captain America actor Chris Evans, sporting a buzzcut and beard well after Avengers wrapped principal photography, was forced to wear a wig and facial prosthetic to recreate his Steve Rogers look, and shields his face from the camera by holding his head in his hands. And boy, did that scene catch like wildfire. It was the final morsel of awesomeness in what many are considering the greatest super-hero movie of all time.
Since the scene’s debut, shawarma has been the go-to after-Avengers snack for Marvel movie fans. Shawarma sales nationwide have spiked
considerably, with TMZ reporting that Lebanese restaurant Ro Ro’s Chicken in Hollywood saw the spit-cooked specialty’s sales jump 80% after the Avengers hit theaters. Twitter was abuzz with Shawarmania, and sparked controversy in regards to the spoilery nature of the discussion. Shawarma is one of the go-to memes to comes out of the Avengers, and has yielded pita-fulls of fan-art depicting our Avengers in various stages of nomming. Shawarma t-shirts have been popping up on the various “get’em while they’re hot” t-shirt sites, and was even included as a “gift” you could bequeath to your famished Facebook friends in the Avengers Alliance game.
Having a hard time finding a good shawarma joint in your area? Yelp is a good place to start, and in a pinch, Greek gyros are a suitable replacement for the genuine Arabic shawarma. But if you’re really in the mood for some Avenger-quality shawarma, get your ass to New York Comic-Con this October, and take your pick from the countless shawarma and halal carts lining the city streets, or if in the Los Angeles-area, take the advice of Ant-Man director Edgar Wright, and hit Elat Burger on West Pico Blvd, the actual shawarma joint from the now-infamous Avengers end credits scene!
Filed Under: It's All Geek to Me
Wait… there was a shawarma scene in The Avengers?! Well, god damn it, I completely missed that. I guess I’m going to have to go see the movie again.
So you’re one of the few human beings to not realize by now that EVERY Marvel movie has an additional scene after the credits roll?
(That scene, BTW, didn’t show outside the US because they’ve filmed it right after sending out the international copies. I did know about it prior to watching the film, so had to hunt it down later on the web.)
Oh, I realized there was a scene after the credits, and I’ve stayed to watch it all 9 times that I’ve seen the movie so far.
It’s the AFTER AFTER credits scene. Like when all the credits are done I think. Unfortunately I left after the Thanos credits scene and missed the shawarma one too.
I just want to make it abundantly clear that I DID in fact see the shwarma scene. I saw it the first time I saw the movie and the following 8 times as well. I was just making a lame joke to Knize because he knows I’ve seen the movie a ton of times, and a small running joke has developed about how much I’ve seen it.
For those that didn’t stay until after the credits of Avengers….what’s so important in your life?
1. Getting the family something to eat.
2. Getting ready for work.
Y’know, those little things that are more important than a 30 second clip of people eating fast food.
Oh, I completely understand. If my family was starving, I’d probably leave a movie early, too.
Not sure why you’d plan to watch a movie so close to having to leave for work…but…I guess you’ve gotta put food on the table, amirite?
May I suggest shawarma the next time you need to leave a Marvel film early for food with the family?
Well, in fairness, I did stay for the Thanos clip, and I only left because I didn’t know the other clip existed. So given the previous Marvel experiences, after seeing the secret ending I had no reason to believe there would be a second secret ending. I think most movie goers would have considered the film over at that point.
All Marvel Studios movies have had a secret scene at the very end of the credits. There was no reason not to assume that wasn’t the case with Avengers. Even considering the Thanos sequence, considering the scale of the film, why not stick around just in case?
I heard there is something at the end of Prometheus, but I had to take a dump about 20 minutes before it ended and when the credits rolled, I had to jet out into the bathroom so I missed it.
It was just a little bit at the very end of the credits: Weyland Corporation “Building Better Worlds Since 10. 11. 12″ and the website: http://www.whatis101112.com/
I only saw the Thanos scene. I didn’t see this additional scene either.
It amuses me to see shawarma being so popular in North America all of a sudden, since it’s been one of the most popular fast food delicacies here in Israel for decades. For me eating a shawarma is like for an American to have a hotdog.
To add to your description: The types most common in Israel (far as I know) are chicken, turkey and beef. I think turkey is the most popular, but I prefer beef. Aside from tehina and various vegetables (usually a plain salad) common additions to the dish are humus, amba ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amba_(condiment) ), fries and pickles. What you refer to as pita bread is actually a lafah, or taboon bread: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taboon_bread
It’s an Iraqi-originated bread, also part of the Druze kitchen and very popular in Israel.
Doners are equally delicious as well!!!
Y’all ain’t had real shawarma till you had it from the streets of Saudi Arabia.
If they’re anything like Gyros, I’ll be consuming mass quantities of them. Just have to find a joint around here that sells them.
Gyros will absolutely do in a pinch.