Boston street food: A moveable feast, with paper napkins

re: Boston street food: A moveable feast, with paper napkins

MC Slim JB — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:30:23 GMT

On the other hand...

I was just clearing old photos off my cellphone, and noticed that Karo's spells it "kabob" on its menu at the stand ("THE MOST FAMOUS CHICKEN KABOB MENU"), so even the purveyor isn't consistent on this point.

re: Boston street food: A moveable feast, with paper napkins

MC Slim JB — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:47:38 GMT

McRoundP -- the phrase "as Armenians spell their skewers" is a Stuff editorial insertion, not in my original piece. When it comes to non-English food words, I generally use whichever English transliteration from the original language and alphabet that the vendor does, without comment, e.g., "kebab", "kabob", or "kebap". But as you noted, I blew it on Karo's, which uses yet another variant, "kabab", for which I have no excuse, as I took my own photos of the stand. Dang it! Sorry.

re: Boston street food: A moveable feast, with paper napkins

McRoundP — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:51:55 GMT

Concerning the comment "kabobs (as the Armenians spell their skewers)," I'm not sure with which Armenians you mix, but just a little research would reveal that "kebab" is the common English transliteration of the Armenians' spelling of the word (the letter-for-letter representation of քեբաբ in Armenian), and by far the preferred spelling by the Armenians.

Plus, not to point out the obvious, but it's not how these Armenians (the ones in your picture) seem to spell it, either.