Comments on: Our First Gyro Pitas / Souvlakis in Athens…

By: navyGOLF

navyGOLF — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:11:17 +0000

Too bad, the pictures are just making me so hungry aware that I should be fasting given my exec check-up 8 hrs from now, ouch! I guess they are more commonly known here in Manila as shwarma. The best ones I’ve tasted so far are in Sala st. Malate Manila, The Original Shwarma Center. There’s two in Paranque inside Betterliving subd, Little Tehran, and in BF along president’s ave, near the entrance in front of EastWest Bank, sorry fogot the name. They also serve really good beef biryani rice. Mr. Kebab in QC is fairly ok as well as Behrous(not sure of the spelling) in Metrowalk, Ortigas.

By: kate

kate — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:39:34 +0000

wow, so so so YUMMY! thanks for posting those great photos :) the pita looks so fluffy and soft too.

By: Didi

Didi — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 09:39:25 +0000

Ooh!! I love Greek food! Yummy yummy yummy!!

I wish there were authentic ones here…

Salivating now…

By: History of Greek Food

History of Greek Food — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:17:42 +0000

What a wonderful description of Athens! I find most interesting to see familiar places through a visitorâ€™ eyes.
Greek word gyros or gyro means â€˜roundâ€™ and is a kind of meat roasted on a vertical rotisserie. By extension, gyros may refer to the sandwich of pita wrapped around it. The traditional filling for a pita with gyro are tomatoes, onions, tzatziki or strained yogurt and optionally paprika. The fried potatoes have been added rather recently. Sometimes the nameâ€™souvlakiâ€™ is applied to that sandwich as well. (souvlaki with gyro).
However, since the word souvlaki, a diminutive of souvla, means skewer, the souvlaki is consisted of small pieces of meat threaded on a small wooden skewer. This skewer is also known as kalamaki (a diminutive of kalami = reed), so the word kalamaki is a synonym for souvlaki, proper in Athens and Crete.
If you ask for a kalamaki youâ€™ll get a souvlaki with a wooden skewer and a piece of bread. If you ask for a souvlaki with pita, youâ€™ll get a souvlaki meat without the skewer in pita bread with tomatoes, yogourt and onions, like gyros with pita. Of course you can pick your ingredients for your pita souvlaki or gyros.
The meat for souvlaki and gyros is traditioanally pork; in modern times chicken is used as well.
Sometimes beef is used for gyros while lamb is almost uncommon. If you are a vegetarian you may ask for a patatopita (=pita with potatoes), a pita without the meat but with the yogourt, tomatoes, onions and french fries.
In restaurants, not souvlaki shops, the souvlaki is large and threaded on a metal skewer. You can also order swordfish, prawn or vegetable souvlaki.

Enjoy your staying in Greece,
Best regards.

By: Homebuddy

Homebuddy — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:45:49 +0000

Love your posts MM, as usual. Food and travel really go together just like love and marriage, you can’t have one without the other.

By: joey

joey — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 03:41:16 +0000

You are definitely making me miss Greece much too much! The gyros are phenomenal…we used to get our’s at a similar hole in the wall place near where we lived, a quick lunch after a morning meeting, rushing back to our place. The most delicious and also the cheapest food I’ve had…it’s so easy to go on-the-cheap in Greece! Our souvlaki guy also had a bunch of other different meats in his roaster/oven (which was really like a small room)…he has this rolled and stuffed roast pork that was amazing!

Definitely look for small cheapy places with no tourists and fast turnover of customers — my strategy too :)

Maybe you can develop a recipe for a kick-a** gyro??? :)

By: Gilda

Gilda — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:50:05 +0000

Oh YUM!! I think food always tastes so much better when I’m on vacation. Maybe because it’s a welcome change from the usual fare I’m used to having when I’m at home.

I love trying all kinds of ethnic foods. Greek is a favorite but so are Indian, TexMex and Thai.

By: katring

katring — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 02:46:47 +0000

Hi! What place in manila serves the best gyro? My benchmark is the one sold in the Cuenca Bazaar in Alabang. Is there a yummier one?

By: joonie

joonie — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:31:25 +0000

I miss souvlaki. Can’t find any good ones in Manila. I end up making my own.

By: AleXena

AleXena — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:53:47 +0000

Good morning MarketMan!=)

I never thought that I would have my saliva glands working by just looking at your blog. The day has come though when I opened up your site and I saw the picture of that delicious gyro.

I even learned how to pronounce it properly. Now I know that what I had here in Manila is similar enough. And its true, we Filipinos have a thing for trying the local eateries without thinking twice=P