Another social media triumph for my home town! An Ottawa Shawarmarie has triggered a viral phen-omenon known as ‘The Walking Shawarma’. It’s a logical evolution of The Walking Taco, which lately has been so ‘hot’ online…
Ottawa Instagrammer Tamiya (pictured left) stumbled upon the creation when she went looking for dinner recently in our famous Byward market tourist/ent-ertainment area. There’s a restaurant every few feet along the sidewalks. And she was capitvated by a window display for The Walking Shawarma outside of Osmow’s, on Dalhousie, just north of George St.
What it is…
The Walking Shawarma is a logical ex-tension.evolution of the previously viral Walking Taco. So we’ll start by looking at the genesis of the WT as background for our exposé on the WS.
The WT is simply a grab-and-eat-as-you-go version of the popular Mexican street food dish. Tacos can be messy to eat on the go. And no amount of paper napkins is enough to control the ooze. So someone, somewhere, earlier this year, decided to make tacos for travel-lers by building the dish inside a bag of Doritos Corn Chips.
The bag is opened down the long side, the ingredients scooped in, and a fork is provided for you to eat with. The fork just makes sense. Thanks to it and the Doritos bag, your hands remain unsullied! And the Doritos are perfectly bite-sized. Just stack up your ‘best bite’ and shovel it in….
The Walking Shawarma…
… Elevates the walking Taco Concept to exotic new heights! Osmow’s starts with a bag of the Doritos flavour you favour and spoons in the ingredients from your favourite classic Shawarma wrap or platter.
Tamiya can’t stop raving about the dish – and the whole experience, for that matter!
The Osmow’s ‘channel’…
Osmow’s Ottawa is part of a Shawarma chain that spans all ten Canadian provinces, with more than 230 locations, and more opening every year.
Judging by the big promo splash for the WS on the main Osmow’s website, the Walking Shawarma is available at all Osmow’s locations.
I don’t know if they’ve trademarked or patented it, or anything yet, but they’re already indelibly re-corded in Fast Food History as the creators.
My take
We’ll have to see where it goes from here… But it’s clearly just a matter of time before the craze spreads to the US and around the world. I can clearly see the Walking Shawarma becoming a per-manent addition to the Middle Eastern Takeout Menu!
~ Maggie J.