In my hometown of Medellin, without ever having been to Asia and by only contact to Chinese food was at NY’s Chinatown  (Not a great representation of asian food), I remember eating chuzos. To those who don’t know, chuzos are astoundingly similar to chuan’r–and therefore kebabs.They are marinated cubes of meat mixed with onions and peppers, placed on a skewer and barbecued. They are usually served with arepa ( a round bread-looking maize dough). As you can see from the photo below, the resemblance is uncanny. You can then, imagine my surprise when I first arrive to China and saw chuan’r. 15 thousand kilometers away and completely different cuisines, yet this two “traditional” dishes were astoundingly similar.

It turns out that Colombian chuzos and Chuan’r are not the only two kebab-looking dishes connecting two cuisines with no other apparent similarity (I used kebab as reference because I believe it is the most known dish, not as an acknowledgement as ancestor of all barbecued skewered meat). The French brochette, Spanish pincho, Japanese yakitori, and the south east asian satay all reflect the same similarity.

In France, en brochettes  refers to all the food cooked on skewers. There is not specific recipe, but as all french things are, the term is only reserved for things done in France.

In the case of Spain, it becomes a little more interesting. Spain, like Xinjiang, has also been influenced by muslim and middle eastern culture. According to the newspaper El Correo, the spanish believe that the pinchito came fromt muslim societies, and they go further to state that kebabs came to be because in muslim cultures knives are not used at the dinner table–the reasoning was that they could be perceived as a weapon and that the dinner table was a place for harmony. Traditional recipe is made with cumin, black grounded pepper, ginger, sweet pepper, turmeric, and saffron. As you may see, the spices are very similar to those of chuan’r.

Going back to Asia, we have the japanese yakitori. The Japanese yakitori as chicken skewers served with a sweet soy-based sauce. The earliest recordings of yakitori date it back to the 17th century. The 17th century period in Japan, called Edo, was characterized by economic growth and isolationist policies. During this period, the dutch (through the Dutch East India Company) were the only with constant contact with the Japanese.

Finally we arrive at south east asia. Here chuan’r are known as satays. Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore  all have their own versions of satay and all claim to have the original satay. Indonesian satay is known for their peanut sauce; thai satay has turmeric as its main spice; Malay satay (also known as chicken satay) is also made with turmeric and served with a peanut sauce; Singaporean satay has both turmeric and cumin as its base spice.

Overall, all of these dishes have a middle eastern influence or were influenced by cuisine previously influenced by the middle east. At this point it would be easy to conclude and say that the shish kebabs are, in fact, the original skewered meat. But we have found evidence stating that maybe, it is not.