Rotterdam snack bar El Aviva, birthplace of the now internationally renowned Kapsalon, is celebrating 20 years of snack history this week, local broadcaster Rijnmond reported.

The Kapsalon, a combination of fries, doner kebab, tomato, cucumber, garlic sauce, sambal and melted cheese, came into being when hairdresser Nataniël Gomes ordered his own version of a doner kebab sandwich in 2003. El Aviva owner Dervis Bengü was happy to oblige and the Kapsalon has arrived.

The snack, whose 1800 calories could at a pinch provide the average adult with enough energy for the day, quickly became popular, including in Germany and Belgium, and even reached such distant but Netherlands-related shores as Indonesia and Suriname.

The heavy calorific load does not bother people too much, the broadcaster found. ‘I don’t care, I just eat it because I like it,’ one customer said.

For people who do care about what they eat there are vegetarian variations of the Kapsalon with a mere 800 calories, and variations on the original recipe abound.

Varieties include fish instead of kebab, for instance, or feature a different sauce or cheese. In Suriname, saté sauce has ousted garlic sauce and at Jakarta restaurant Smaklek the fries have been replaced with rice for what it calls ‘Dutch comfort food’.

Find out more about Dutch snack culture here.