Streetside Mangal · Grilled Meat Skewers
Shashlik
Photo: Игоревич / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
The word shashlik comes from the Crimean Tatar 'şış', meaning skewer — it entered Russian via Crimea in the 18th century, while the Caucasus gave the dish its grilling culture.
Shashlik is chunks of marinated lamb, pork, or beef threaded onto long metal skewers and grilled over hot charcoal in a mangal, then slid off into a sheet of lavash bread with raw onion and herbs. Roadside stalls throughout the North Caucasus grill it fresh over open coals, the smoke visible from the road.
Why it's made this way: Skewer-grilling over charcoal is a core Caucasus mountain tradition, and the region's mangal culture is widely credited as the origin point from which shashlik spread across the rest of Russia.
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