Where shall we meat?
Three to four tons every day. That's how much meat is to be pushed out of a new kebab plant to be built in Szcecin, employing 100 people by the end of the year. The company is called Kaplan Polska, the Polish branch of German kebab king Remzi Kaplan, whose Berlin kebab chain, launched in the early '90s, went on to become Germany's leading kebab supplier. Along with the new plant, the company hopes to expand its franchise operations across the country. And kebab connoisseurs nationwide anxiously anticipate the new taste about to break onto the Polish fast-food scene.
Translated literally as "the meat that turns," the doner kebab is the Turkish fast-food phenomenon that was in fact-according to legend-invented in Berlin in 1971, when one Mehmet Ayguyen decided to stuff the traditional Turkish meat and vegetables into a pita bread and top it with a yogurt/garlic sauce. Fast-food deal hunters across Europe have praised this man's brief flash of brilliance ever since. And although the kebab has clearly already hit Poland, perhaps the market has room for more, at least if the case of Germany is anything to go by.
In our neighbor to the west, 280 tons of kebab are consumed every day. This is more than the turnover of McDonald's, Burger King and Wienerwald combined over a whole year in that country, according to the center for Turkish studies in Essen, in western Germany. There is even an organization called the Turkish Doner Makers Association of Europe located in its apparent home turf-Berlin.
"We really believe that this market will develop," says Jacek Schaffer, president of Kaplan Polska, "because there are 40 million people in Poland, who are not so rich, who are thirsty for something they can buy and eat that is cheap, fast, and healthy."
The company indeed already has several restaurants in the north of Poland, in Rewel, Pobierów and Dziwnowek, which are currently supplied by its plant in Berlin (which pumps out a hefty five tons of meat a day). Schaffer says the new Szczecin plant will take over the meat-processing task, and feed the expanding network of Kaplan-logo outlets across the country. That means fresher meat, for one thing. But what does Kaplan have to offer that our existing kebab stands don't have already?
According to Schaffer, a good product has no competition. Up until today, he believes the kebabs found in Poland have not been of a very high quality-not like the "real" kebabs, such as those found in Germany, for instance.
So what's their secret? The only thing they'll give away is that they use mostly veal and beef. As far as the vegetables and spice factor, Poles not living in Rewel, Pobierow or Dziwnowek will just have to wait. But hopefully not for long.
"We will show you how a real kebab tastes!" proclaims Schaffer.
That's what we like to hear.
Translated literally as "the meat that turns," the doner kebab is the Turkish fast-food phenomenon that was in fact-according to legend-invented in Berlin in 1971, when one Mehmet Ayguyen decided to stuff the traditional Turkish meat and vegetables into a pita bread and top it with a yogurt/garlic sauce. Fast-food deal hunters across Europe have praised this man's brief flash of brilliance ever since. And although the kebab has clearly already hit Poland, perhaps the market has room for more, at least if the case of Germany is anything to go by.
In our neighbor to the west, 280 tons of kebab are consumed every day. This is more than the turnover of McDonald's, Burger King and Wienerwald combined over a whole year in that country, according to the center for Turkish studies in Essen, in western Germany. There is even an organization called the Turkish Doner Makers Association of Europe located in its apparent home turf-Berlin.
"We really believe that this market will develop," says Jacek Schaffer, president of Kaplan Polska, "because there are 40 million people in Poland, who are not so rich, who are thirsty for something they can buy and eat that is cheap, fast, and healthy."
The company indeed already has several restaurants in the north of Poland, in Rewel, Pobierów and Dziwnowek, which are currently supplied by its plant in Berlin (which pumps out a hefty five tons of meat a day). Schaffer says the new Szczecin plant will take over the meat-processing task, and feed the expanding network of Kaplan-logo outlets across the country. That means fresher meat, for one thing. But what does Kaplan have to offer that our existing kebab stands don't have already?
According to Schaffer, a good product has no competition. Up until today, he believes the kebabs found in Poland have not been of a very high quality-not like the "real" kebabs, such as those found in Germany, for instance.
So what's their secret? The only thing they'll give away is that they use mostly veal and beef. As far as the vegetables and spice factor, Poles not living in Rewel, Pobierow or Dziwnowek will just have to wait. But hopefully not for long.
"We will show you how a real kebab tastes!" proclaims Schaffer.
That's what we like to hear.
