Donair sandwich

Donair — it's a spin on a gyro made with thin patties of ground beef, cheese, pickled veggies and Occo’s sweet Donair sauce!  This east coast Halifax Donair specialty is something like a gyro, but all beef – no lamb. Rather than the traditional tzatziki sauce, donairs use “donair sauce”.

Most people in North America are familiar with a Greek gyro sandwich, a sliced lamb meat sandwich you can find n some fast food courts. Well, there is also the Turkish Döner kebab, a seasoned meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. The original Döner dates back to the 19th century from the Ottoman Empire.

So what does that have to with a Donair from Halifax, Nova Scotia? Well, when Peter Gamoulakos immigrated to Canada in 1959 he tried to sell traditional gyros but the idea of lamb scared the locals away. So in 1973 he adapted the recipe and made it with beef, some more local spices. The Donair sandwich was a hit, so much so that in 2015 Halifax named the Donair the official food of the city.