Medha Imam: The Greeks call it gyro.
The Arabs call it shawarma.
The Spanish: al pastor.
All of these sliced meats can be traced back
to the seat of the Ottoman Empire,
which is now Turkey.
There, it's called the döner kebab.
And that's Swiss-born Turkish national
and NBA player Enes Kanter.
He took us to Aba,
an authentic Turkish restaurant in New York City,
to show us a dish that, to him, tastes like home.
Kanter: I can eat this in breakfast, lunch, dinner.
Every day.
Imam: Kanter has been a longtime vocal opponent
of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
After Kanter criticized Erdoğan on Twitter in 2016,
the Turkish government canceled his passport
and put out an international warrant for his arrest.
Kanter: The last time I went home was 2015,
and, you know, you still, it doesn't matter how much
you love other kind of food,
you still miss your home food.
Imam: Since he has no way of returning home anytime soon,
Kanter looks to food,
to connect back to his Turkish culture.
Kanter: I grew up eating it.
I mean, I remember I usually eat it, like,
three, four times a week.
It's usually cooked in the streets,
and you see this big, warm chunk of meat
that is turning, and people are like,
first time people would see that thing, it was like,
what is this?
Imam: Döner kebab literally translates to
rotating meat.
And it is traditionally made of pieces of lamb or beef
skewered on a spit and grilled vertically on a rotisserie.
But that wasn't always the case.
Priscilla Mary Işin: The earliest description
of döner kebab
is by a Turkish traveler
of the 17th century.
But he doesn't call it that.
Imam: That's Priscilla Mary Işin,
a food historian who wrote a book on
Ottoman cuisine.
Işin came across two miniature paintings
dating back to 1616 that illustrated
the döner kebab being eaten at a picnic.
By the 1850s, Ottoman chefs had realized that
turning the spit vertically would allow
for fat to drip directly onto the meat,
allowing for a tastier meal.
It remained a small-town secret until the 1940s,
when restaurateur Beyti Güler began serving
döner to political leaders and celebrities
in Istanbul.
Now, variations of the döner kebab
can be seen all over the world.
The fact that it's cooked on a vertical rotisserie,
it shows that it takes time to cook it
and it's really inhaling the spices.
Döner kebab starts off with meat and fat,
and lots of it.
The most traditional döner kebab is made from lamb.
The lamb meat is first thinly sliced horizontally.
Various herbs and spices are soaked in milk
to be then used as marinade for the meat.
Afterwards, the slabs of seasoned meat
are stacked in between layers and layers of fat.
At Aba, the meat is also stacked in between
slabs of ground lamb and beef.
Once completely stacked onto the spit,
excess meat is shaved off.
The next morning, the kebab is cooked
on a vertical rotisserie.
As the meat spins, only the outer layer,
measuring an inch thick, is actually cooked.
Kanter: But the chef has to be so good,
'cause you have to slice it very thin.
Imam: Oh, my God, this looks amazing.
Kanter: It is, huh.
Imam: Is it teşekkür ederim?
Kanter: There you go! That's all you need.
Imam: Teşekkür ederim.
Is the middle where you cut the döner kebab?
Kanter: Yes.
Imam: The döner kebab!
There is it, guys.
Kanter: Let's see how I cut it.
Imam: Oh, yeah. Let's see if you did a good job.
Kanter: Yeah.
I did an amazing job.
Imam: That one is the best.
Kanter: Yes. Imam: The döner kebab
is the best.
Kanter: Yes.
Imam: That's amazing.
What does Turkish food mean to you,
now that you're in America and very far from home?
Kanter: You know, America been great to me.
Been definitely amazing, and people here
are very respectful.
I love the, you know, the American food and everything,
but this Turkish food still reminds me of home.
I swear, every bite I take just reminds me of my mom,
my dad, old days,
good old days, sit around the table
and just sharing and eating together
and just give us, like, stories.
Tell each other stories.
So good.
It's really, really good. Right, huh?
Imam: It tastes very seasoned and very smoky,
and it feels like you're eating just fresh meat.
Kanter: Wow.
You love food, huh?
Imam: I love food. Kanter: I can tell.
I can tell.
It's just, like, the taste that you
could never experience in any American food.
Yeah, I think that's really important,
to come and try it in a real Turkish restaurant.
Imam: Do you ever eat Turkish food after a game?
Kanter: So, my team order Turkish food for me,
and I remember eating in the locker room,
and everybody, all my team, was like, what is this?
Because some of my teammates never try Turkish food, ever.
And for them to just go out there and just
try the foods that I grew up with,
I'm like, man, this is so awesome.
But I've been to many Turkish restaurants,
of course, all over America.
This is definitely my favorite.
I don't go just for the taste.
I go for more than that.
I go for the memories and for my family.