Talk:Skewer

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One of the "Other Uses" which in my experience is a far more common use for skewers is as a "stoker" for clearing blockages in a water-pipe's (bong) stem or cone piece. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Anakirob (talk • contribs) 03:50, 30 December 2016 (UTC)

maybe the word comes from "que", which is a row in fact, or a line for a payment office. just like bbq, barbeque, a row/line on a piece of barb-wire. maybe... so s-kew-er could be sque'r, "the thing to make a que with" 213.17.27.144 (talk) 23:10, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

Issues with "List of skewered foods"
It seems that List of kebabs was merged into this article and redirected. There are a number of issues with that: - "Kebab" is not synonymous with "skewered food". "Kebab", at least in the main countries like Turkey and Iran where the cuisine originated, simply means "meat dish". Many kebab dishes are not cooked on skewers. I've removed many entries from the list, which I could identify as not being a skewered food. - Subsequently, the list is not appropriate as a redirect destination for "List of kebabs", because it no longer contains many of the most important (non-skewered) kebab dishes, and also contains some non-kebab skewered foods like Yakitori. So I've restored the original "List of kebabs" page, and merged some of the recently added citations and so on, from user:Northamerica1000 (thanks!), back to that article.

I'm a bit concerned about this list though. It is, essentially, a list of kebabs, but with all non-skewered kebabs removed. Plus, a couple of non-kebab skewered foods added. I'm afraid that this unfortunately will reinforce the common misperception and stereotype of a kebab as being "meat on a stick", rather than a varied cuisine of dishes with a Middle Eastern / Muslim cultural origin. I think it's more damaging to public education to have a list of kebabs with non-skewered ones erased, than whatever value having such a list of skewered foods would provide. It's a misrepresentation of what kebabs are. Do we really need this list? -- IamNotU (talk) 00:40, 27 September 2017 (UTC)

I've gone ahead and removed this list. It's too difficult to maintain as a duplicate of both List of kebabs and the main kebab article. Edits made in any of the three places continuously have to be merged to the others. Instead I've just put links to those lists, with the explanation that they may contain a few dishes that are not on skewers. As it turns out, there are only a very few non-kebab skewered dishes, so I just mentioned those separately. --IamNotU (talk) 19:57, 9 January 2018 (UTC)

"See also" section
I've also removed the links to all the kebab articles, which are already on the list of kebabs, from the "see also" section. It's not a good idea to reproduce the removed "list of skewered foods" in this section, for the reasons I gave above. Besides, we already have the "skewered foods" category, which automatically generates such a list, and which can be used consistently across articles. It's also not practical to list all skewered kebabs here, because there are too many, and there are no reasonable and fair criteria to decide which ones are excluded. Someone will always be offended when the one from their region is missing. --IamNotU (talk) 22:50, 13 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Ok. However, be careful not to mix up what is called pincho in Spain and what is called pincho in Latin America, this last thing apparently does not have a page so far, though it seems to be roughly the same as what is called pinchos morunos in Spain. --Jotamar (talk) 21:49, 14 January 2018 (UTC)


 * I'm not mixing them up. Regarding your comment: "Spanish pincho = not skewered food, the link was wrong". The pinchos article says: "They are related to tapas, the main difference being that pinchos are usually 'spiked' with a skewer or toothpick, often to a piece of bread". To my understanding of the word and concept, this is most definitely a picture of "skewered food" -->
 * If you have some good reason that they shouldn't be described as such, I'm happy to consider it.
 * On the other hand, pinchos morunos, a.k.a. pinchitos or pinchos americanos, in both Spain and Latin America, are found on the "list of kebabs". They were derived from Moorish (moruno) Muslim cuisine, which makes them kebabs, or at least, a variation or derivative of kebabs. Therefore they don't belong in the "other" (non-kebab) section along with anticucho (which existed in South America before Columbus), Yakitori, etc. --IamNotU (talk) 00:50, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * This is getting weird. It's obvious that you have never met any Spanish pincho, and you're basing your editions on sources from WP itself, including the pincho page, which happens to be in my watchlist. The pincho name refers to a toothpick or similar tool that is used to join the different ingredients together in the plate, NOT TO COOK THEM (in fact many pinchos are not cooked at all). In the Basque Country the toothpick is also used to compute the number of pinchos consumed by each customer (that is clearly the case in the picture). In addition, the toothpick is not necessary at all for the item to be called a pincho. I expect you to understand that I know far more about the matter than you, so I'll delete the text and let this rest in peace. --Jotamar (talk) 01:15, 15 January 2018 (UTC)


 * Nothing says that "skewered food" is food that is cooked on skewers. The sentence says "prepared" on skewers, which can also mean cold food that is assembled and served that way. The very next sentence (which I didn't write) gives drink garnishes on cocktail sticks or toothpicks as another good example of skewered food. Also, the fact that it's possible to serve pinchos without skewers, doesn't take away from the fact that they traditionally and most often have been served that way, hence the name pincho. In this section, I'm trying to make a reasonably comprehensive list of culturally significant skewered food dishes from around the world that are not related to kebab; I believe the pincho meets this definition and don't see a good reason to exclude it. I'll try again to re-word it in a way you'll find acceptable. --IamNotU (talk) 17:59, 15 January 2018 (UTC)
 * Ok. --Jotamar (talk) 19:03, 15 January 2018 (UTC)