{"id":166122,"date":"2018-06-04T02:14:20","date_gmt":"2018-06-04T06:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=166122"},"modified":"2018-06-04T02:14:20","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T06:14:20","slug":"a-taste-of-the-east-coast-king-of-donair-bringing-n-s-favourites-out-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/04\/a-taste-of-the-east-coast-king-of-donair-bringing-n-s-favourites-out-west\/","title":{"rendered":"A taste of the East Coast: King of Donair bringing N.S. favourites out West"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"But<\/a>
But Nicholas Nahas, owner of King of Donair, says the franchise has already opened a store in Edmonton, with more to follow elsewhere in Alberta, as well as in B.C. and the other Prairie provinces. (Photo By Donair902 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HALIFAX — They’re spicy, they’re sweet, and now, they’re moving West.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, the donair wrap — a beloved Nova Scotia delicacy consisting of a warm pita piled high with spiced meat, sticky-sweet donair sauce and other toppings — has been available almost exclusively on the East Coast.<\/p>\n

But Nicholas Nahas, owner of King of Donair, says the franchise has already opened a store in Edmonton, with more to follow elsewhere in Alberta, as well as in B.C. and the other Prairie provinces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never heard of anyone who’s tried a donair for the first time, who enjoys meat, who’s not liked it,\u201d Nahas said in an interview Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe combination of the spiced meat and the sweet sauce really is a contrasting and complementing taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wrap, similar to a Greek gyro, was reputedly invented by King of Donair over 40 years ago. In 2015, Halifax named the donair as the city’s official food.<\/p>\n

The idea to expand westward had been on Nahas’ mind for years, but the catalyst was when King of Donair held successful pop-up shops in Calgary and Edmonton a few years ago.<\/p>\n

After seeing how many people were lining up for the tin-foil-wrapped fare, he decided to put his plan into action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe demand and the turnout there was something that we couldn’t ignore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A few competing shops out West have already tried to replicate the wrap, but Nahas said it’s not the same.<\/p>\n

Some may use a different type of meat, some may use the wrong sauce, and some may use different types of vegetables, opting for lettuce instead of the traditional toppings: onions and tomatoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe donair was invented here in Halifax in ’73 without lettuce,\u201d said Nahas. \u201cFor some reason, I don’t know why, lettuce just became part of the wrap out West.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kayla Burke, who runs the recently-opened Edmonton franchise, said you won’t find any lettuce in her shop.<\/p>\n

Originally from Cape Breton, Burke said many Nova Scotians move to Western Canada for work and she’s happy to offer nostalgic Maritimers a taste of home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we’ve opened, we’ve had a line right out the door,\u201d she said Sunday, estimating that around 75 per cent of her customers are from Nova Scotia. \u201cSo many Maritimers are so excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What sets the donair apart from other wraps is the sauce: made with condensed milk, vinegar, and garlic, the creamy white dressing adds a uniquely sweet and tangy flavour to the greasy treat.<\/p>\n

Burke said some places out West who try to replicate the donair use tzatziki, which is more savoury than sweet, adding that the shop’s more traditional-tasting sauce has been a hit among customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone’s so pumped about the donair sauce,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton shop also sells other N.S. favourites like donair pizza and garlic fingers: a cheesy, garlicky flatbread cut into narrow slices and served with either donair or marinara sauce.<\/p>\n

Another King of Donair store is set to open later this month in Grand Prairie, Alta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX — They’re spicy, they’re sweet, and now, they’re moving West. Traditionally, the donair wrap — a beloved Nova Scotia …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":166123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[51651,1682,3805],"class_list":["post-166122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-food","tag-donair-wrap","tag-halifax","tag-nova-scotia","mauthors-alex-cooke","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}