Avengers, Assemble....For Shawarma! (MINOR SPOILER)

Just for the record, it's not often that we get to cross-categorize a report into both the "Movie" and "Food" sections.

For that matter, it's probably the only I'll ever get to report that Captain America and Iron Man are apparently a couple cats with their fingers on the pulse trendy dining.

In a scene from Marvel's predictably wildly popular "The Avengers", Robert Downey Jr.'s Devil-may-care take on Tony Stark/Iron Man finds himself with a hankering following a hard-fought battle. Hey, what good's Iron Man with an empty tank, right?

"Have you ever tried shawarma?" Iron Man asks Captain America (Chris Evans). "There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it."

OK, Learning Tree-time, kids.

Generally speaking, "shawarma" refers as much to a Middle Eastern preparation method as a single identifiable dish - kind of like how ribs, burnt ends and pulled pork are all lumped "barbeque." A slab of meat - often lamb, goat, turkey, chicken or beef - is skewered vertically on a spit and slow-roasted for as long as a day. It's then usually served either on a plate, or as filling in a pita bread sandwich or wrap. In the Middle East, Europe and the Caucuses, it's about as commonplace a fast-food as Subway here in the U.S.

Apparently, its referencing in "The Avengers" has made it the proverbial "talk of the town." An informal TMZ poll claims that shawarma restaurants' traffic is collectively on an unusual upswing since the film hit theaters last weekend. Hollywood's Ro-Ro's Chicken claims their sales have shot up a good 80 percent since May 4.

Of course, there's also this surreal moment below that features Earth's Mightiest Heroes just chowing down on the stuff - in full costume (Stark excepted, of course), no less.