Originally Posted by
stimpy
Yes, the common cheap Euro variety. But Kebap was invented in Turkey. In fact I visited the original restaurant and started a thread about it here somewhere if you look.
I think the key issue here is immigration and the key customer groups of ethnic restaurants.
At my favourite Berlin Turkish restaurant, Balli, at least half of the diners are of Turkish origin. Alas, they know the original food, are quality conscious regarding it and good or bad experiences travel by word of mouth. Everything is also made from scratch. Lovely iskender or meat skewers...
As a comparison, some very basic Turkish kebap joints in Itaewon in Seoul. The customers are normally drunken Korean revellers, US G.Is on leave or other clubbing expats. As long as you are offering something hot and filling, nobody is going to expect any authenticity.
What counts is a quick fix and to keep the price down. God only knows where they get their ingredients from.
I think this is the strong point of the US as well. You simply have enough people who know what a particular cuisine and food should taste like. And who expect a reasonable price/quality ratio. As mentioned before, if the ingredients are of respectable origin,
voila. What more do you need?