Harry Reviews: TACOS AL PASTOR

OK Here's an easy question for you Zihuaphile trivia nuts:
And no cheating by googling Tacos Al Pastor Mexico either!

Who introduced this dish to Mexico?

1) An incredibly ambitious Swedish American wholesale kitchen supply salesman from Minneapolis/St. Paul, named Arnie Johnson who just happened to have a basement full of BBQ machines left over from a bankruptcy sale.

2) Lebanese immigrants to Mexico

3) The dish also known as Donner Kebab and Gyros was believed to have originated in Turkey, and spread all over the world in the 20th Century, with each country adding their own variation.

#1 is the correct answer. Actually all of them are.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Mexico's contribution to the art:

"...They can be found all over Mexico, especially in street corners. They are not new to Mexico, and it is unknown if there is a direct relationship with the Turkish Kebab. In Puebla, this was introduced by the numerous Middle-Eastern immigrants, mostly from Lebanon and Syria, but also Turkey and Iraq, in the early 1920s. Since then, it has become a traditional dish of the city, locally known as taco árabe, "Arabian taco", sold in taquerías orientales, "[Middle-]Eastern taco stands". Nonetheless, it is now usually made with beef and lamb and served either in pitas –locally called pan árabe, "Arabian bread"–, leavened bread –locally called torta árabe, "Arabian baguette", also called cemita–, or simply in flour tortillas. It is usually accompanied tahini and labneh –locally called jocoque– even though the skhug (or kharif) has been replaced with a thick chipotle-garlic sauce. In other parts of the country, most notably in Mexico City, the dish has adapted to the Mexican cuisine by replacing the pita with corn tortillas, in what is now called a taco al pastor, "shepherd taco". Unlike a taco árabe, the taco al pastor is served with pineapple, cilantro, chopped onions and green or red salsa, and marinated with annatto sauce. ...."

Here on this board the hands down favourite-beat-it-across-town-to-die-for seems to be PAPAS LOCAS. But in the interest of saving the soles of my flip flops or the 30 pesos a UTAAZ taxi cab**n would charge, I did some of my own research and found what I think is a perfectly acceptable Pastor place right in the heart of Centro at TORREON on Nicolas Bravo. There are two of these franchise joints on the same block, one of which seems to specialize in Tacos de Cabeza (not my favourite), but the larger one with its BBQ hanging out onto the sidewalk does what I would call a truly bang- up job. 5 for 50 pesos, and they're each served in a pair of thin almost delicate tortillas, but the house salsa I found to be really unique and special. Try 'em and see!