Information about Greek gyros?

Question

Can you suggest a webpage with reliable information about the greek gyros and its history?

Answer 1

i can't say that it is of greek origin. Arabs and Turks have the same dish, but with different names. btw i love it!!

Answer 2

Here is a webpage about the Greek gyros. I have written it myself for my Explore Crete website:
http://www.explorecrete.com/cuisine/gyros.html

In this page I have tried to describe exactly what gyros served in Greece is, which is probably different than what is served in USA. I hope it will be helpful for you, but please do no copy everything and republish it elsewhere.

Answer 3

Actually here in Greece gyros is made from pork meat and not from lamb. All though in the last years many gyro shops sell gyros made from chicken meat.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

I am sure you can google it and get all the info you want. Briefly, the gyros is a Turkish kebob, which of course the Greeks improved on. It is slowly grilled on a vertical spit and its original name is Tash Kebob. There are other kebobs and the one best known in the western world is the sish kebob and the Greek name for it is souvlaki. Aside of those two you also have a donner kebob anda few more.

Answer 6

My dear, you must come to us to see it in practice..Not from sites. Or the best thing U suggest you is that in USA, there are more greeks than americans..So, ask them, they have also restaurants. Not from site?What is it?scientific congress?

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyros
http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Sandwiches/GyroSandwich.htm
http://www.explorecrete.com/cuisine/gyros.html
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greece/C/Gyros.html

hope the above sites help you .

Answer 8

Gyros & doner kebabs

The history of gyros poses some unexpected questions. Certainly, the ingredients (lamb, pita bread, grilled vegetables, & seasonings) were known to Ancient peoples of the Middle East. Kebabs (roasted skewered meat) and other spiced meat minces have been sold by Middle Eastern and Greek street vendors for hundreds of years.

"...[one of the] the most highly regarded dishes of Baghdad [9th century AD]: judhaba (also called judhab)...Judhaba was basically roast meat; one thinks of shish kebabs....In the case of judhaba, the first thing to note is that the meat in question is not a skewer or kebab grilled over coals but something sliced off a large cut of meat roasted in a clay oven--an tannur (tandoor)--and then, as we have seen, minced fine. The sweet that accompanies it was actually the essence of the dish, the judhaba proper. It was a sort of sweetened Yorkshire pudding, stuck under the meat as it roasted to catch running fat and meat juices...The only surviving tenth-century cookbook, Kitab al-Tabikh, the contents of which date mostly from the ninth century, gives no fewer than nineteen recipes."
---"What to Order in Ninth-Century Baghdad," Charles Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery, Essays and tranlations by Mxime Rodinson, A.J. Arberry & Charles Perry [Prospect Books:Devon] 2001 (p. 220-1)

Gyros, as we know them today, presumably evolved from this tradition. Food historians generally agree the name "gyro" and the current product are both recent inventions, originating in the New York. According to the New York Times, modern gyros were very popular in the city during the early 1970s. They were marketed as fast food and embraced by diners looking for something different.

About kebabs


"Gyro. A Greek-American sandwich made from rotisserie-roasted, seasoned lamb that is sliced and served with onions in a pocket of pita bread. The word (which first appears in print in 1970) is from the Greek gyros, meaning a "turn" and is pronounced "JEER-o." The dish is better known in America than in Greece and possibly created in New York, where gyros are sold at Greek lunch counters and by street vendors, although some say it originated in the Plaka neighborhood of Athens. It is not a dish found in classic Greek cookery or listed in Greek cookbooks. It also seems possible that the name "gyro" may have some association with the Italian-American sandwich called Hero."
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 147)

"A sandwich that is said to have originated 2,000 years ago is capturing the attention of Manhattan's quick eaters. The sandwich, a Greek gyro, pronounce "year-oh" is a lamb, tomato and onion concoction nestled in a fold of a soft bread called pita. More than 30 Greek snack stores selling the gyro have opened in Manhattan in the last year, according to the proprieter's estimates. In a heavily trafficked areas such as Times Square, three stores have opened in the last two months. Why has the Greek Gryo gained a prominent place in the fast food race? Store owners, patrons and native Greeks agree that the two major reasons are that the gyro is "different" and "delicious...The increase in the snack's popularity may be related to the large number of Americans who visit Greece and sample the local cuisine...The term gyro denotes a ring or circle and refers to the rotation of the meat as it is cooked. Greek historians attribute the origin of the dish to soldiers from the army of Alexander the great, who skewered their meat on long knives and cooked it by repeated turning over an open firet. Modern gyros are cooked on an electric rotisserie and are sold for prices ranging from 85 cents to $1...A Young Greek couple enjoying a gyro or "doner kebab" at the new Plaza de Athena on Broadway at 45th Street said they thought the food was "close to what it's like in Athens."
---"The Gyro, a Greek Sandwich, Selling Like Hot Dogs," New York Times, September 4, 1971 (p. 23)

"There will be lots of broiled meats, including gyro, that agglomeration of meat sold in booths all over New York, although its Greek provenance is questionable. "We found that people are associating it with Greeks, so we included it," said Harry Raptakis, chairman of the bazaar. "Besides, it might even have some Greek background to it." Of things definitely Greek, there will be souvlaki and shish kebab, which will be broiled atop a 2-by-10 food cinderblock cooking pit. "We only use lamb," said Mr. Raptakis."
---"Joys of Greece at L.I. Fair," Irvin Molotsky, New York Times, June 9, 1978 (p. C21)

"A keen nose for street food once led my husband and me to discover something called doner kebab in the market stalls in Herakleion the capital of Crete, long before it reached New York under the name gyro." ---"Dining a la Cart: Street Food Mirrors the Tastes of a City," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, April 17, 1991 (p.C1, C8)

"Gyro. [Spitted spiced lamb]. Gyro, gyro oli is a favorite children's game, comparable to farmer in the dell, which describes the round-and-round motion of gyro. Since spreading to Greece from the Middle East, industrious Hellenes have brought it to the United States (New York is spinning with gyro restaurants), and one more snack has been added. On a vertical spit, which truns electrically, or is run manually by the mikro (apprentice), the meat is roasted t flavorful crispness." ---The Food of Greece: Food, Folkways and Travel in the Mainland and Islands of Greece, Vilma Lia couras Chantiles [Anteneum:New York] 1975 (p. 155)
[NOTE: This book contains a recipe for gyro on p. 156. Your librarian can help you find it.]

"In Turkey, doner kebab consists of thin cuts of lamb laid over warm "fladenbrot," a round flat loaf similar to pita, and steeped in tsatsiki sauce, with tomatoes, onions, and lettuce on the side. It is usually served in sit-down restaurants. In Germany, "doner," has taken on a sandwich form, and is sold from small booths catering to takeout customers. The meat is slowly roasted on a vertical spit, sliced almost paper-thin, and then stuffed into a triangular piece of fladenbrot, topped by the vegetables. For about 60 cents more, a few slabs of feta cheese are included. The sauces - garlic or tomato-based and ranging from tangy to sharp - often vary. "The different doner booths make their own sauces according to their own recipes," says Tuncay Zulkaflu, owner of Knig Doner in Dresden. What makes "Istanbul Doner," another doner booth in Dresden and two-time winner of a magazine-sponsored survey for the city's best doner, so popular? "The sauces," answers a worker there. "It is a very special recipe, but it is a secret, so I can't say [what it is]...There are an estimated 9,300 doner vendors in Germany...As far as the doner's place on the German snack circuit, "It is equal to the bratwurst or bockwurst," says Uwe Stuhrberg, editor at Sax Magazine, which conducted the doner surveys. According to a 1998 study on doner by the Turkish Studies Center at Essen University, the average German eats eight doners per year. Not bad for a sandwich developed less than thirty years ago, when Turkish "guest workers" in Germany, who found themselves unemployed in the midst of the '70s economic crisis, starting selling doners to support their families. Back then, vendors prepared the meat themselves and sold it from street corners. It remained mainly a mom-and-pop industry until German reunification, when vendors tapped into the East German market."
---"More Germans nix kraut for kebabs," Omar Sacirbey,

Just Googled it.=) Hope this helps.