Beef Shawarma Burger

Shawarma comes from the Levant under the Ottoman Empire, and its name is an Arabic rendering of a Turkish word for turning on a rotisserie. The technique behind it, a vertical stack of meat slices roasted on a slowly turning spit and shaved off as it cooks, first appeared in the 19th century as döner kebab; Encyclopaedia Britannica credits a Turkish butcher named Iskender in Bursa. Greek gyros and Levantine shawarma both descend from it. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it is now made with chicken, beef and turkey too, and the garlic sauce and spice that go with it have found their way into burgers.

• Philippines
• Since 1982
• $

Minute Burger opened in 1982 and belongs to the Leslie Corporation, the Philippine food company best known for Clover Chips. It grew as a street-level burger stand rather than a sit-down restaurant: a franchised store needs only about 30 square metres, and the chain has sold franchises since 2003. Today it counts more than 600 stores across the country, some of them open around the clock.

More than 600 stores across the Philippines, mostly small franchised kiosks, some open 24 hours.

The full Minute Burger burger menu and story →