The story
In 2003 Nataniël Gomes, a Cape Verdean hairdresser in Rotterdam's Delfshaven district, kept asking the shawarma snack bar next to his salon, El Aviva, to pile all his favourite things into one tray: fries, shawarma meat and Gouda melted in the oven, topped with lettuce, garlic sauce and sambal. Staff began calling it the usual order for the kapsalon, Dutch for hair salon, and soon other customers wanted it too. Neighbouring snack bars copied it, and it spread across the Netherlands and Belgium and on to Germany, Poland and even Nepal. When Gomes died in 2023, hundreds lined the street outside his salon.
Also known as kapsalon shoarma, kapsalon döner.
On the Meridish menu
Kapsalon was the street food course on menu No. 12 on October 12, 2026. Its clue in the game, which hints at the place without naming it:
Fries topped with shawarma, melted cheese and salad, named after a hair salon. A hairdresser dreamed it up at the snack bar next door in 2003, in this harbour city.
In Meridish, every dish is pinned to the town or city most widely credited with creating it. A guess within 25 km scores all 100 points. How scoring works.
Sources
Food history is often disputed. Think we've pinned it in the wrong place? Tell us at hello@meridish.com, ideally with a source.
