Halal snack pack
Australian fast food dish of halal kebab meat and chips.
The halal snack pack is an Australian fast food dish consisting of halal-certified gyro or doner kebab meat (lamb, chicken, beef, or a combination) and chips, typically served with sauces such as chilli, garlic, and barbecue. It has been described as a staple takeaway dish of kebab shops in Australia and gained significant media attention following the creation of the Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society in late 2015.
- Origin
- Australia
- Main ingredients
- Halal-certified gyro or doner kebab meat, chips, sauces (chilli, garlic, barbecue)
- Alternative names
- snack pack, snack box, mixed plate, meat box (Western Australia), AB (Adelaide), meat on chips (New Zealand)
- Year of earliest known existence
- at least the 1980s
- Notable recognition
- Macquarie Dictionary 'People's Choice Word of the Year' 2016
- Related dish
- kapsalon (Netherlands and Belgium)
Lore & Background
According to some, snack packs date back at least to the 1980s. They have since become a quintessential Australian dish. Variations or similar dishes exist in other countries, including 'doner meat and chips' in the United Kingdom, 'kebab meat on chips' in New Zealand, 'Döner-Box' in Germany, 'kapsalon' in the Netherlands and Belgium, 'kebabtallrik' in Sweden, 'gyro fries' in the United States, and 'kebab ranskalaisilla' in Finland.
Reader's Guide
The halal snack pack gained prominence in late 2015 after the creation of the Facebook group Halal Snack Pack Appreciation Society, which formed a subculture around the dish known to bring cultures together. This led to wide media coverage and a notable reference by Senator Sam Dastyari in Australian Parliament during a debate about halal certification, credited for much of the increase in attention. In July 2016, Senator Dastyari invited One Nation party leader Pauline Hanson out for a halal snack pack after she won a Senate seat; she rejected the proposal, stating she was not interested in halal certification. In response, several Australian restaurants created a Pauline Hanson-inspired halal snack pack, and a GoFundMe campaign sought to turn Hanson's former fish and chip shop into a pop-up halal snack pack stand. The dish is traditionally served in polystyrene containers but now commonly in moulded pulp or cardboard due to bans on single-use plastic packaging in most Australian states.
Did You Know?
- The name 'halal snack pack' was voted by readers of the Macquarie Dictionary as the 'People's Choice Word of the Year' for 2016.
- In Adelaide, the dish is known as an 'AB', and two restaurants claim to have invented it: the North Adelaide Burger Bar between 1969 and 1972, and the Blue & White in 1989.
- A variant called the 'Healthy Snack Pack' replaces chips with a choice of salad.
- The dish exists in New Zealand as 'meat on chips' and is similar to the Dutch 'kapsalon'.
More in Australian cuisine 1-24
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