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This dish is rather well known and popular in a lot of European and Asian countries. North America - not so much. It is generally known as "Shashlik".

The best meat to use for this is lamb. However, it proved to be a pain in the ass to obtain it over here, so I've used the "Pot Roast" beef - it turned out rather good.

You will need skewers. Ideally, these would be the flattened aluminum ones, as they would not rotate back in place when you're trying to turn the meat over. I've used the bamboo ones, they're not too bad.

• Meat - I've used about 3kg of pot roast beef.
• Onions - about the same amount - by volume - of onions as meat.
• 750ml of Red Wine Vinegar
• 2 table spoons of lemon juice
• Salt and spices to taste

Cut up all the meat into 1/5"x1"x1" pieces. Chop the onions into rather large pieces - we will skewer them along with meat later.

Add salt, all the spices, vinegar and onions to our meat. Fill the pot with water so the meat would be fully covered. Make sure you have enough vinegar in your mix; the water should be pretty tingly when tasted, but not too much to be repulsive.

Put the pot into the fridge for about 18-48 hours for the meat to marinate.

After that painfully long time, it is time to put the meat onto our skewers. Separate each piece of meat with a piece of onion; you don't have to eat the onions later, but they certainly give off nice aroma and taste. Once each skewer is full, squeeze the meat to drain excess water.

It's time to make the grill... or not. Feel free to cook these in your barbeque grill, as long as it is NOT a gas one. Smoke and real wood are the key factors in cooking Z-Shliks; I was even skeptical about using store-bought BBQ charcoals and just burned some tree. Personally, I've decided to do it the way I've done it as a kid - by making the grill out of several bricks. The bricks will serve as support for skewers - see pictures.

Z-Shliks are to be cooked on charcoals and not the live fire. If you've already placed your Z-Sliks on the grill and a fire springs up, use the water in which the meat was to extinguish it; this will give off a nice aroma.

Place Z-Shliks over the charcoals and cook them just as you would cook a sausage or a burger - until meat is ready.

It was -15°C when I was cooking these, so I tried to make them as fast as possible. However, during a warm season, the charcoals would stay warm longer. Therefore, during cooking I would suggest sprinkling Z-Shliks with marinade water in which the meat was. This would make them just that little extra tastier.

Traditionally, Z-Shliks are to be served simply with a piece of bread. It's a good idea to toast the bread over the same gril while the Z-Shliks are cooking.

As with most food, for best results, eat Z-Sliks right away while they're hot.

Here's my today's lunch, I chose beer instead of bread:)

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