By MICHAEL SLACKMAN

AMMAN, Jordan - If you were to slow it all down, this is what you would see: scoop of sauce, pinch of onions, scoop of tomatoes, shovel in some meat, roll it all up in a pita.

But who has time to slow down? The crowds are always pressed up against the gate - in the searing heat of a Jordan summer day or the desert chill of a cold winter night - outside Reem, a tiny takeout place with a reputation for the best beef and lamb shawarma sandwiches in the Middle East.

Shawarma is marinated meat grilled on an upright skewer, shaved off in bits and rolled in a pita. It looks like a Greek gyro.

Behind the counter, Alaa Abdel Fattah assembles sandwiches in a blur. Four seconds each. ¡°You get used to it,¡± he says .

This shop, with its open-air storefront and two upright logs of rotating meat, sells more than 5,000 sandwiches a day, for about $1 apiece. The family that owns Reem now has four small restaurants in Amman, and copycat Reem shawarma stands have opened throughout the Middle East.

¡°It is like a pillar for me to eat here,¡± said Hamza al-Maini, 22, who said he traveled across Amman, past many other shawarma shops, to buy from Reem. ¡°I have to come every week. I think it¡¯s the best.¡±

Jordanians acknowledge that shawarma was originally imported, probably from Turkey, maybe from Greece, but it has clearly become a local food, having been adapted to native tastes and customs.

But who cares? Not the diners at Reem. They come here to eat, often in their cars, or standing outside, bent over at the waist to avoid drips of grease and sauce that can leak out the bottom .

It is a remarkable sight : crowds, all day, every day, outside this oversize kiosk.

¡°It¡¯s the McDonald¡¯s of the Arab world,¡± said Momtaz al-Shorafa, who said he had his friend, Muhammad Kiswani, drive him across town to get two sandwiches each.

There is no way to say for sure that Reem¡¯s shawarma is the best in the Middle East. Even in Amman there are competitors and, well, shawarma often tastes like shawarma . ¡°Try the shawarma here and the shawarma there; you wouldn¡¯t taste a difference,¡± said Sameh Shokry, who works at a competitor .

Reem was founded in 1976 by Ahmed Ali Bani Hammad, who had worked as a cook in Lebanon, which is known for the best, freshest cuisine in the region. He returned home and opened his own shop.

It is just wide enough for a cashier, two upright gas ovens to cook the meat, and eight young men who cook, cut and serve nonstop.

Little has changed since he opened the place, except that now his sons, Sammer and Khalid, run the business. They drive a Porsche Cayenne and dress in leather jackets.

¡°You make good money with shawarma?¡±

¡°Yes we do,¡± said Sammer Bani Hammad, the eldest son, laughing. He inherited the most important family responsibility when his father died five years ago. He is the keeper of the secret recipe.

Reem goes through more than 450 kilograms of meat a day.

¡°Our customers are from across all classes,¡± Mr. Hammad said. ¡°You can see a minister, a laborer, an actor, they are all here, they all wait the same.¡±


Reem, a food stand in Amman, Jordan, sells more than 5,000 shawarma sandwiches a day for about $1 apiece. / SHAWN BALDWIN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES