You can eat this, but we don't recommend it.

September 18, 2023 11:57 AM

Ketchup on Shawarma Waiver of Liability
posted by jacquilynne (94 comments total)

I'm weirdly proud that this is Toronto. We take our shawarma seriously.
posted by BetaRayBiff at 12:03 PM on September 18, 2023

We may not be able to stop you from committing heresy, but we can absolve ourselves from it.

Now, we need one for pineapple on pizza.
posted by NoxAeternum at 12:04 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Ketchup on shawarma is odd and off-putting, but ketchup for the fries you should be able to get with it? That’s a recipe for paradise.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:05 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

As someone who lives in Ottawa now, I'm kinda weirded out by the idea of shawarma and fries to begin with. That role in your dinner is already filled by the garlic potatoes with garlic sauce.
posted by jacquilynne at 12:07 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Reminds me of Xi'an Famous Foods' message from the CEO that, although they will make their noodle dishes without their signature chili oil if you ask them to, it's just Not As Good.
posted by jedicus at 12:08 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

Now do hot dogs.

Yeah, I said it.
posted by GamblingBlues at 12:10 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

meh, let people eat what they want
posted by gwint at 12:11 PM on September 18, 2023 [29 favorites]

Canada - a peaceful nation that likes to inflict food fights on others (see this and inventing the idea of the Hawaiian Pizza)
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:16 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

It’s weird that you’d need to say this out loud.
posted by mhoye at 12:19 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

This guy is one of those ones that I enjoy on TikTok just enough that I don't want to follow him, because his shtick is great every now and then ("What you want to eat? No! I give you something else!") but can be exhausting in larger doses. A ketchup waiver? Sure, that's amusing. As long as my kid can get the damn ketchup.
posted by Etrigan at 12:26 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hot dogs are trash kiddie food that we all still love to eat, and getting hepped up about ketchup on them is one of the most pointless hills to die on that have ever been invented. That's why they come without toppings - so you can put whatever the @^#%@# you want on them. I had a hot dog this past weekend at the Wells Fargo Center here in Philly, and I loved it! There was no ketchup, though, only... barbecue sauce. Which I declined to utilize.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:29 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

How stand ye on the white vinegar fries/chips heresy?
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:35 PM on September 18, 2023

Tonight, for the first time, I will be having Japanese Spaghetti Napolitan. It's spaghetti, but it uses ketchup instead of traditional tomato sauce. Yes, ketchup.

Wish me luck.
posted by mikeand1 at 12:37 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

It's spaghetti, but it uses ketchup instead of traditional tomato sauce.

There must be some way out of this. Have you considered grievous self harm? I mean other than eating the ketchup spaghetti.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 12:39 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

After thirty years of only ever putting ketchup on hot dogs, I finally learned what I was missing. Now I put ketchup and sweet onions on my hot dogs.

I do prefer New England-style hot dog buns because they're easier to grill and are chock full of nostalgia and memories.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:44 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

This guy and his Shawarmas show in my Instagram for you page all the time.....I knew exactly who we were talking about the moment I saw "Ketchup on Shawarma" - let alone clicking. And I live thousands of miles from his store and have never been. What a weird world we live in. Also I could really go a good falafel right this minute.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 12:47 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

It's a funny waiver but also, maybe, feel free not to serve ketchup even for fries. There's nothing I loved more as a kid than dipping fries into anything sauce-ish. Applesauce, ranch dressing, pesto, cheese sauce. The fusion opportunities are endless.
posted by muddgirl at 12:53 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Maybe they could license their writing to Chicago hot dog vendors.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:54 PM on September 18, 2023

(Um, not that those are fusion examples!)
posted by muddgirl at 12:54 PM on September 18, 2023

Offer not good in Chicago.
posted by y2karl at 12:54 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

feel free not to serve ketchup even for fries

That's cool. I always keep a ziploc full of ketchup packets in the car.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:58 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hot dogs are trash kiddie food t

What?! Beef trimmings are good for you, and sone hot dogs, like Coleman’s, contain only beef trimmings, salt and seasonings. Some also include binders, like corn starch, and preservatives. Omitting preservatives, they’re a lot healthier than a lot of foods, like pasta and pizza, which don’t necessarily have much protein. A hot dog with kraut and mustard is healthy dining.
posted by waving at 1:01 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

I'm usually ok with letting people eat what they want, but it's argued in his videos that it's like putting ketchup on steak. I'm alright with letting cultures set their levels of culinary disrespect.
posted by weewooweewoo at 1:02 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Ketchup on schawarma, I know, I know, it's serious...
posted by eschatfische at 1:05 PM on September 18, 2023 [12 favorites]

Actually, this is great. We all need deeply held beliefs and serious conflicts to define ourselves and our communities, and a totally unenforceable but deeply felt set of beliefs about how to eat shawarma absolutely fills the bill.

Me, I think ketchup is great on your cheapo hotdogs such as my family used to get because we were on a tight budget, but tastes weird on your all-beef, finer, more sausage-y hotdogs.
posted by Frowner at 1:09 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I’ve only eaten ketchup in two countries and Canadian ketchup is waaay more sweet than ketchup in the U.S. Not that I’d try the combo here, but there it would be particularly gross. French fries however do belong on every sandwich.
posted by Conrad-Casserole at 1:26 PM on September 18, 2023

What's next, hot sauce on my poutine?
posted by Chuffy at 1:38 PM on September 18, 2023

sensiblechuckle.gif
posted by slogger at 1:39 PM on September 18, 2023

Now, we need one for pineapple on pizza.

I don't even like pineapple on pizza particularly, but I delight in trotting this fact out whenever a no-pineapple opinion rears its head: Franco Pepe who has multiple best pizzaiolo of the year awards has done a pineapple pizza.
posted by juv3nal at 1:46 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

So if we all get on board with the shoarma thing can they agree to emancipate all their women?

Shawarma is a style of cooking rotisserie meats on a skewer that's used across many cultures. This article is specifically about a vendor of shawarma in Canada. What are your criticisms regarding the emancipation of women in Canada?
posted by eschatfische at 1:49 PM on September 18, 2023 [13 favorites]

Just because of this thread I am going to eat 3 Hawaiian pizzas tonight.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:49 PM on September 18, 2023 [13 favorites]

I don't think I have ever seen anyone or until now even heard of anyone that put ketchup on their shawarma. I don't think King Shawarma downstairs in my block even has ketchup. There is the white sauce and the chili sauce and mayo for the fries. Which leads to the next issue: why put ketchup on your fries if you are at a shawarma joint?

On the other hand, with all due respect for the noble citizens of Chicago, here a classic hotdog is served with ketchup, dijon, yellow mustard, (optional remoulade), pickled cucumbers, raw onions and fried onions. Yes, the sauces and relishes take up more space than the dog. The hot dog is a vehicle for a hot medley of flavours. And it is good. To be followed with a bottle of either hot or iced chocolate milk. You can also get a modern invention called a French hotdog, which no-one in France has ever seen, which is in a baguette-thing instead of a roll, and has a "French" dressing (mayo, creme fraiche and garlic) instead of all the natural, god-given sauces mentioned above.
posted by mumimor at 1:55 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Meatfilter: So if we all get on board with the shoarma thing
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:55 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

like sriracha on pancakes.
posted by clavdivs at 2:10 PM on September 18, 2023

So if we all get on board with the shoarma thing can they agree to emancipate all their women?

What a dumb take...
posted by Pendragon at 2:12 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I haven't had shawarma, but if it's anything like it's close relative the donair, ketchup is not a condiment I'd even think about adding to it. (Actually, donair meat might technically be a type of shawarma because it uses the same cooking technique, but colloquially they're two different things in my region, with shawarma typically being chicken and donair being beef)
posted by asnider at 2:17 PM on September 18, 2023

ike sriracha on pancakes.

What about scallion pancakes?
posted by asnider at 2:19 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Just because of this thread I am going to eat 3 Hawaiian pizzas tonight.

With ketchup!

More seriously, while I think it is fine to have strongly-held feelings about food (I sure do!), it's easy for that to shade into making people feel bad, or to just write off food loved by millions of people as "wrong" which is simplistic and frankly rude. Like, I love spaghetti made in a traditional Italian style, but I also like the American version of the red sauce, and I also like Filipino spaghetti made with hot dogs and ketchup. None of those is "wrong," whether or not a given person enjoys or appreciates any of them.
posted by Dip Flash at 2:32 PM on September 18, 2023 [8 favorites]

I would far rather live in a world with pineapple pizza than eat french fries with mayonnaise on them. It's just wrong.
posted by supermedusa at 2:40 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

See, I like both pineapple pizza and fries w/ mayo. You'll see this at many upscale establishments, except there they call it aioli.

Eat all the things!
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:45 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Years ago in junior high, a few of us headed to a burger place to kill time before a band rehearsal. One guy ordered fries and grabbed a bunch of packets of mayo and relish. He proceeded to open them up and mix them all together. The rest of us just stared at him. What are you doing? We all asked. For the fries he said. Huh? We responded. Where did you get that idea? He told us, people in Europe. Try it! We all tried it and agreed it was better than ketchup.
posted by njohnson23 at 2:47 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just because of this thread I am going to continue not eating pineapple on pizza, nor ketchup on anything at all (in both cases my objection is they're too sweet).

If I were someone who deigned to eat hot dogs I'd rather have spicy brown mustard, and my preferred dip for fries is horseradish sauce.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:55 PM on September 18, 2023

Mustard on burgers as well.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:55 PM on September 18, 2023

Peanut butter and sweet gherkin pickle sandwich.
posted by y2karl at 2:59 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Dijon mustard is a really amazing on fries and tater tots
posted by supermedusa at 2:59 PM on September 18, 2023

Chicago checking in, again. Ketchup is fine. Just don't do it on a steamed bun. It's too wet.
posted by JoeZydeco at 3:03 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I was poor white trash growing up, we couldn't afford boxed mac and cheese but the gummint would buy us macaroni and the gummint would buy us ketchup. You can bet your sweet picky-ass those two things ended up being served together more than once, with little modification, complaint nor fanfare, but probably with a side of milk.

As an adult I find ketchup and milk disgusting, but I also will defend anyone who wants to modify any food they have purchased with any other topping as long as it's edible and ethical.

Life is too fucking short for that kind of proscriptiveness. We already have too many rules.
posted by aspersioncast at 3:30 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

Mod note: One deleted. Please refrain from making indirect, insensitive comments about unnamed countries and the condition of their women in a thread about Shawarma. Check out our guidelines for some participation refreshers.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 3:31 PM on September 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

I could maybe see something that's like 90% hot sauce (shatta) and 10% ketchup being okay on Shawarma.
posted by BrotherCaine at 3:40 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Do not disrespect the American Mother Sauce!
posted by Marky at 3:42 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

I know people who eat peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches. On purpose.

Maybe ketchup in general was a mistake
posted by Baethan at 3:51 PM on September 18, 2023

Can’t think of anything I just eat ketchup on.

But ketchup and mustard: hamburgers and hot dogs.
Ketchup and Tapatio: Fries and Tater Tots
posted by Windopaene at 3:57 PM on September 18, 2023

If you like ketchup on shawarma
That was cooked with propane
If you're not into yogurt
If you like it whole-grain
If you like your pizza fruited
Or maybe placed in a crepe
Sign the waiver from Shelby's
We'll get some food and a vape
posted by credulous at 4:05 PM on September 18, 2023 [9 favorites]

The best things to put ketchup on (besides fries) are meatloaf and black-eyed peas. Those are the only three things I will use ketchup for. Hamburgers and hot dogs need mustard.
posted by Miss Cellania at 4:09 PM on September 18, 2023

grumbles in Chicagoan

I'm not yucking your yum. You already yucked it.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 4:18 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

ketchup on ... black-eyed peas

What on earth
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:19 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

I never even wanted to put ketchup on shawarma until this guy brought it up. Now I'm curious.
posted by chavenet at 4:23 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

As I've gotten older, my reaction to people getting all rules-ismy about food has reached the point where I take one of two approaches depending on the nature of the commentary:

1) If people take the approach of "Oh, you put item X on Y? You heathen! You idiot! You commoner!" then I'm like "You can take a long walk off a short pier, my friend" and eat it how I want it.

2) If people take the approach of "Yeah, item X is pretty tasty, but if you add it to Y, you might be missing out on the interaction between the flavors and textures in ingredients 1, 3, and 5. Here let me make it for you and show you what I'm talking about/Let me take you to a restaurant where they get it just right without item X" then I'm like "You are a wonderful person and I will happily try it your way, in the hopes that I learn something and gain a new appreciation for this food that I like."

(For the record, I didn't put ketchup on shwarma back in my meat-eating days, but it is an absolute necessity for fries -- seriously, I flat out won't eat fries if I don't have ketchup for them, be they Chez Fancy's Gourmet Quadruple-fried Potatoes from the Garden of Eden or SuperMarket Chain Discount frozen potato-like product #24)
posted by lord_wolf at 4:35 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

meh, let people eat what they want

Pretty sure the restaurant is doing exactly that! You just have to sign a waiver first.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 4:51 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

The best things to put ketchup on (besides fries) are meatloaf and black-eyed peas.

Apart from sliced, not chopped liver and onions, that is.
posted by y2karl at 5:13 PM on September 18, 2023

Pomegranate ketchup
posted by BrotherCaine at 5:20 PM on September 18, 2023

Mustard on burgers as well.

sir this is a wendy's
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 5:26 PM on September 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

There is a vein of humour to be mined in mock horror over violations of supposed food rules, and this can be a lot of fun when we're (eg) engaging in partisan fun over pineapple on pizza or whether you can eat fish and chips with a knife and fork. The trouble starts with people who aren't in on the joke. And as with all cross cultural humour, positionality makes a difference.

Personally I fondly remember shawarma in Jerusalem that came with fries *inside* the wrap.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 5:28 PM on September 18, 2023 [4 favorites]

My boss puts ketchup on his lobster rolls...
posted by feistycakes at 5:48 PM on September 18, 2023

Mustard on burgers as well.

sir this is a wendy's

In that case I'll have mustard on my Whataburger.
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:08 PM on September 18, 2023

In that case I'll have mustard on my Whataburger.

Maybe I'm missing the joke, but mustard is the default sauce on a Whataburger?

(Although it's true that those in the know opt for Creamy Pepper sauce, aka "Patty Melt sauce".)
posted by eschatfische at 6:33 PM on September 18, 2023

I like lamb/beef shawarma platter with white sauce and hot sauce. The white sauce at the halal place nearby me isn't tatziki; it's more like ranch dressing, though not quite.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 6:44 PM on September 18, 2023

Being a food police officer
Is the worst kind
of self-appointed misery.

Leave people alone
and cringe quietly.
As if you don't
eat something shocking.

You do.
posted by tiny frying pan at 7:10 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Maybe I'm missing the joke, but mustard is the default sauce on a Whataburger?

True, but it's darned hard to convince the cashier at Wendy's to sell you one.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:31 PM on September 18, 2023

Is tomato jam just a ridiculously fancy ketchup? Or is ketchup just a basic, lame tomato jam? Discuss.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:00 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

i don't see much difference b/w pineapple and ham, and melon plus proscuitto.
posted by PinkMoose at 8:36 PM on September 18, 2023

I've never been offered melon+prosciutto on a pizza...
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:47 PM on September 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

One guy ordered fries and grabbed a bunch of packets of mayo and relish. He proceeded to open them up and mix them all together.

He made tartar sauce, which is very good on fries IMO

When I was poor white trash growing up, we couldn't afford boxed mac and cheese but the gummint would buy us macaroni and the gummint would buy us ketchup. You can bet your sweet picky-ass those two things ended up being served together more than once

Did you get a tapeworm?
posted by waving at 10:02 PM on September 18, 2023 [7 favorites]

Did you get a tapeworm?

Every time I've had boxed mac & cheese in the last 30 years, I've sung that in my head at least once.
posted by Ickster at 10:07 PM on September 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

When I started college I lived in the dorm and didn’t have much money. I ought a bag of Idaho potato and would microwave them and put ketchup on them because it was readily available for free. It was pretty yucky but better than having nothing but salt, kinda. Strange how different the experience is between eating french fries vs baked potatoes with ketchup.
posted by waving at 10:18 PM on September 18, 2023

or whether you can eat fish and chips with a knife and fork.

I once worked with a person who would eat a banana with a fork, never letting their lips touch the erect, unsheathed fruit.
posted by slogger at 4:57 AM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

So tired of food policing. It’s not fun, it’s not funny, it’s just a way of letting someone know they’re not in the tribe. God, do people in this culture love to tell someone you are not one of us.
posted by KHAAAN! at 5:17 AM on September 19, 2023 [5 favorites]

Heh I just found out that heinz made Chicago Dog Sauce (which was just ketchup of course). And of course it backfired as a gimmick. I even got angry reacts from my Chicago friends lol. How and why you'd want to ruin Middle East/Indian or Maghreb food I have no idea.

Funny enough my sister hated salsa as a kid so she used ketchup on her tacos, which I did until I grew up but if I'm lazy tortillas beams cheese and ketchup is my white trash fusion burrito.
posted by symbioid at 7:16 AM on September 19, 2023

When I did fieldwork in Mexico, the UNAM grad students ate ketchup on their refried beans everyday.
posted by hydrobatidae at 7:21 AM on September 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

VERY WELL. CATSUP ON GREASY HONKY PIE.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 8:36 AM on September 19, 2023

I once worked with a person who would eat a banana with a fork, never letting their lips touch the erect, unsheathed fruit.

Catholic school messes people up.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 9:52 AM on September 19, 2023 [3 favorites]

Tonight, for the first time, I will be having Japanese Spaghetti Napolitan. It's spaghetti, but it uses ketchup instead of traditional tomato sauce. Yes, ketchup.

Wish me luck.

I make Napolitan all the time. It's delicious. I hope you didn't forget the Tabasco.
posted by bananana at 12:17 PM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

I’m still shocked that nobody seems to have imported Australia’s answer to poutine, the Halal Snack Park.
posted by clicking the 'Post Comment' button at 4:23 PM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

Sometime just posted on r/Ottawa to all whether people prefer poutine with cheese curds or grated cheese and I think there might be a riot soon.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:16 PM on September 19, 2023 [4 favorites]

Lost a bit in the news about Romney not running for reelection was the factoid that he would eat salmon and ketchup sandwiches, with Alaskan salmon gifted to him by Murkowski:

On the day of my first visit, he showed me his freezer, which was full of salmon filets that had been given to him by Lisa Murkowski, the senator from Alaska. He didn’t especially like salmon but found that if he put it on a hamburger bun and smothered it in ketchup, it made for a serviceable meal.

If you're a freaking senator sitting at home and don't like something you have in your fridge, just eat something else.
posted by Riki tiki at 6:00 PM on September 19, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you're a freaking senator sitting at home and don't like something you have in your fridge, just eat something else.

Wasting gifted food is bad. I'm with Romney on this one.
posted by zymil at 4:56 AM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

Put some horseradish in your ketchup and you have cocktail sauce. Normally eaten on fish, on salmon specifically more rare, but not that radical either.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:32 AM on September 20, 2023

Over in the chicken and rice thread I mentioned my daughter, who seems to be the polar opposite of Mitt Romney in foodways.
One of her other seemingly innocent food requests, though she was perhaps 12 at this point, was: can I have sauce mousseline with my salmon tonight? She had befriended a very posh girl who had mega-rich foodie parents (the dad was in the produce business), and had grown used to luxury food. Luckily, I can whip up a sauce mousseline. Maybe I should offer my services to the Romney family? I'm looking for real job after years of precariousness.
posted by mumimor at 8:06 AM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

The excerpt makes it clear that he was using the ketchup ("smothering") because he didn't like salmon, though. Quietly re-gift it to one of your kids or something and no one would bat an eyelid about it. It was frozen so it's not even like he had to be in a rush.
posted by Riki tiki at 11:24 AM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

In related Canadian food news, the Alberta provincial government once had a surplus donair costume that they wanted to sell...

... (I have no idea what the Alberta provincial government considers a reasonable number of donair costumes to have in-inventory to be, and am irrationally holding on to the hope that the answer is above zero) ...

... and a bidding war sparked between two places in Edmonton and Halifax (the font of Canadian donair). Part of the tension involved the fact that the costume featured lettuce as a component, which is apparently a mildly heretical deviation from the original.

In the end, the costume went for a frankly surprising $16,000.
posted by The Outsider at 1:43 PM on September 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

What I am thinking is that if Mitt Romney had ever tasted perfectly poached wild salmon with sauce mousseline, and perhaps some very buttery spinach, he would have a totally different opinion of the fish. Too often we get salmon over-cooked and sad and with the wrong dressings.

An alternative is that Lisa Murkowski send her salmon to me. Unfortunately, wild Baltic salmon, which is the best salmon, is no longer available, and almost all the salmon we get over here is farmed. Farmed salmon is almost inedible imo. With or without ketchup.
posted by mumimor at 2:02 PM on September 20, 2023

I'm luck to live on the US west coast, where good wild Pacific salmon (and steelhead trout, very similar to salmon but cheaper and great for smoking) is readily available. Pale tasteless Atlantic/farmed salmon can't hold a candle to it.

All I want on my broiled medium rare salmon is fresh lemon juice, salt, and pepper. All smoked salmon needs is a touch of hot sauce and a good cracker to sit on.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:19 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm envious, I really, really miss good salmon. But you should try the mousseline and spinach one day.
posted by mumimor at 2:24 PM on September 20, 2023

I wouldn't call farmed salmon tasteless. It does, however, taste like the feed they are fed with. Wild Pacific salmon does not have this flavor.
posted by mollweide at 4:05 PM on September 20, 2023 [1 favorite]