Gyros is a stack of pork or chicken grilled on a rotisserie spit, sliced off and served in fluffy pita bread with toppings and sauce. We discuss why it's one of the most popular types of souvlaki, grilled meat street food, in Greece. We discuss how to eat gyros, why it's an important part of Greek culture, what makes truly good gyros, when to eat it, its history and the great potato-tzatziki debate.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:30 The concept of Souvlaki
02:18 How Gyros is made
03:54 When to eat Gyros
04:34 The history of Gyros
05:08 The ingredients
05:51 The Tzatziki-Fries-debate
06:56 Outro
CREDITS
Report: Sarah Hucal
Camera: Marco Borowski
Edit: Philipp Czegka
Supervisind editors: Ruben Kalus/Mirja Viehweger
#gyros #souvlaki #greece
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Have you ever tried Gyros?
Yes , the vegan one
turkish kebabs are better
No but i wish i did try one 😋
@@astroboirapStop trolling. You replied the same words in almost all comments
Turkish kebabs are better if you need help to defecate
As a Turkish person, tasted it in a Greece cafe in Serbia. 10/10 perfect.
Greek-Turkish beef lol no offense
I tasted döner in İstanbul, 10/10, perfect, Ican tell as a Greek.
@@KNIGHTTEMPLAR555 💙 We have loved Greece for more than 5,000 years.💙
I had "gyros" first when I lived in nyc but whatever they're putting there is total trash and I thought it was average at best. But gyros in Greece is on another level. The way it should be done and one of the best street foods out there
You are correct. Do not trust 'Greek food' abroad. It is rarely good and even more rarely Greek. To be honest, even in Greece, to find good gyros/souvlaki/etc nowadays you need to do some research
problem in the usa is everything is an import and somewhere techniques are lost, ingredients differ, with the best will in the world foods in the states are always poor imitations of those in their country of origin. and what the usa has done to bread (the factory commercial products) is a crime against humanity.
@@DaredeviIGRI dunno man. Australia has a massive Greek expat population, and most of the Yiros I bought there tastes great!
Kudos to you for being the only foreigner I've heard pronounce γύρος correctly
That's how we say it in Chicago. We have a big Greek foods factory Kronos. My dad used to work there. He'd bring home fresh gyros and pita every week.
I visited Greece a few years ago and I confirm that they have a very rich cuisine! 🖐🏼💙🇬🇷
Gyros styles vary from region to region, city to city. The size, sauces, condiments, and spicing can vary greatly. Up north in Thessaloniki they put ketchup and mustard! Heathens 😂
end of the day, turkish kebabs are way better
@@astroboirapStop trolling. You replied the same words in almost all comments
@@astroboirap Not better, just different and delicious in their own right too.
@@astroboirapat the end of the day turks are more terrorists yes.
@@astroboirapcan't say I agree. I like Turkish kebabs but tzatziki is better than cacik
I'm a native Texan, but the gyros I've had (with tzatziki) at Greek restaurants have been among my very favorite foods. I could be mistaken, but I thought the gyros I've had were made of lamb.
You will find not even one souvlaki grill shop with lamb in Greece. So this concert must be American one.
@@kenmasters2034 Interesting! Thanks for the info! 🙂
With lamb its donèr and its turkish no tzatziki... greek is chicken or pork ... wraped 🌯🌯🌯🌯🌯 no fry potato ..only tzatziki ..
@@kenmasters2034 That's interesting. Most of the greek places I go to have lamb available for gyros. I guess it is an American one.
Gyros is so big in Greece, i just stumbled upon this youtube video while eating gyros lol! For the first timers, When you order a gyro, you say i want 1)a pita with 2)type of meat( pork or chicken gyro, or pork/chicken skewer or beef patty or sausage) and 3) toppings (tzatziki or mustard sause, tomatos, onions etc). The standard version is: For pork meat: tzatziki sause, tomatos, onions and fries (if it is a traditional place they may not add fries and you may need to say you want them as extra topping) For chicken meat: mustard sause, tomato, lettuce and fries (same rule about fries) So now you know you can either say for example I want a pita with pork gyro and with everything (standard version) or you customise it.
Went i went to greece i found no bad food, everything was delicious, from a cart on the street to any restaurant
Greeks don't put up with mediocre food.
it's very difficoult to find bad food in mediterranean countries 😅
I Love Greece ❤❤
Thank you for the nice video about the most popular street food in Greece 👍
Greek gyros Turkish döner arab shawarma mexican burrito All are so freaking delicious
🌯 berrito doesn't belong to this classification. Those are all slice meatd
Maybe taco al pastor
Greek Kebab Kebab (original) Arab Dürüm, since shawarma is actually a loan word from turkish 'çevirme' Mexican taco (original)
@@sohret1193Turkish kebab (greek souvlaki)
I love Greek food and everything about the country for that matter🩵
end of the day, turkish kebabs are way better
Stop trolling. You replied the same words in almost all comments
Spanakopita
@@astroboirap you wish
@@astroboirap Incorrect and only your opinion. Meanwhile in reality did you know that World Taste Atlas Put Pita Gyros nr 1 of best street food on earth? It completely wiped out Turkis Doner/ Kebab which is ranked way lower. OUCH. Also. We don't use low quality ingredients like in Turkey. Did you know that even this year based on the biggest study in Europe, the most adulterated honeys in Europe are Turkish and Chinese? Meaning. The lowest quality honey completely mixed with sugars and syrups, chemicals and bad things. Greece is not like Turkey. It's way better, way better quality of ingredients and recipes. Now sit back and eat that low ranked Turkish snack of yours
In northern Greece (thessaloniki/makedonia etc ) they serve different versions of gyros, in thick bread and with many other different types of sauce as well, p.ex. with cheese (tirokafteri), with various types of spice etc etc
I remember my vacation on greek islands at Lefkada , I was just 20 & enjoyed souvlaki & greek pastries so good with cheese 😊❤
I love Lefkada.... greetings from Australia
Hello from Lefkada
Greece is a great country with good people
Looks awesome! 👍
Gyros is better than Döner in Berlin
Εννοειται!
@@katkatCSI what is that?
And gyros copy of döner 😂
They're both good.
@@denizbeytekin9853 It means "certainly"
Gyro lover here 😋😋
you're not supposed to stick them up your rectum
Been to Greece many times.
Greek brothers! Best food!
As an italian my opinion what make GYROS the best street food from different Mediterranea or Arab/tuekish street. Food. It's the delicious crispy pork....and the Greek oregano. what else!
Juicy seasoned meat with tzatziki and garlic, fresh pita and vegetables. That's just simple and perfect recepie for a gyro!
With all due respect, Gyros belongs to the streets, just the streets.
Damn, those things are good! I ate a boatload of them when I was there. Watching this video makes me want to go back just to have more.
Damn. You must be boat sized then.
Thank you DW ! Efxaristo, Danke se
I want one now...
I didn't know Gyros was alive and making videos. This changes everything.
One of my favorite greek food 😋😋😋😋
The beauty of Gyros is that you will not have the same in all of Greece - for example, let's say you get a Gyros with chicken. In some restaurants in Athens, they will give you tzatziki sauce and in some others, "pink" sauce (mustard and ketchup). In Thessaloniki, they can even put ketchup! In Corfu, its common to put their "special" red sauce.
The part of the United States I'm from you can find shops all over who have Gyros some better then others, my favorite way is lamb with just grilled onion .
The stuff they have in the states is different. It’s shaved ground meat. Where this( in Greece) it’s actually meat.
Stuff in the states is nothing like the native one, when greeks look at the gyros in the states they feel uncanny because the meat there is usually processed and like grounded (greeks call it plastic as a joke), here in greece is always fresh pork meat or chicken if you are dieting!
@@icantmeme4378 Which is strange, because all other spit meats in the US, like doner, shawarma, and al pastor are just cut meat on skewers. I wonder why it became this ground thing (usually beef or lamb) in the US (I don't love it, either, that's why I usually give gyros a miss here in the US.
This is my favorite food ! luckily you can find it around the world !
💙 We have loved Greece for more than 5,000 years.💙
Yes, thank you for proper pronunciation.
I think in the United States, the meat is usually beef and lamb? The ideal gyros is pita, meat, tomato, onion, and sauce. Nothing more, nothing less. 😊
And parsley usually...
Some places put lettuce on them. It just doesn’t work for me.
definitely not lamb LOL
Pork! No lettuce, no parsley.
@@SmellsLikeNirvanna Pita is also in lamb. In many meat ways. Soutzouki, Lamb, Souvlaki, Gyros, bifteki, and many other ways.
What made gyros the most popular food, apart from the taste, was the low price as well. But now the prices almost doubled making it sometimes more expensive than a burger.
Can you link to the restaurant?
Achilleas, Spintharou 18, Athina 117 43, Greece
👍
Can somebody explain to me what’s the difference and where to draw the line between gyros and shawarma I’m in country where Greek cuisine is way too hard to find out And usually it is super expensive
Both are knockoff’s of Doner from Turkey They’re both an imitation
Shawarma : Middle Eastern (Levantine to be exact) version of the dish. Made with lamb, beef or chicken meat in flattened pieces form (in general. If you want pork it becomes Al Pastor thanks to Lebanese immigrants brought and updated the recipe in Mexico). Döner: Turkish version (The OG version all of these some people say) It started as horizontal stacked version called "Cağ Kebap" (made with only lamb) and 2 centruies and hundreds of kilometers west on Anatolia later, it became vertical and beef started to use in minced form. In modern days it can be made with chicken / lamb / beef / even spicy sausage meat called sucuk in Turkey. During the 70s this dish brought into Europe (Germany/Austria) by Turkish workers / immigrants and it evolved into a new version which contains lots of veggies & sauces. Gyros: Whatever you see in this video is way more enough to explain gyros in my opinion so i don't have anything to add other than Greek immigrants that moved to USA created a version made with fully minced meat and drown that meat with tatziki sauce and they're calling that Gyros too (with wrong pronounciation by English speakers of course :)
Gyros isn't minced meat but sliced pork fillets, one on top of it's other that creates this mass of meat you can see on the video...
@@phdimakopoulos543 If you read my message better, you would understand that i was mentioning the Americanized version of "gyros" in USA brought by Greek immigrants made it like that not the Greeks in Greece ;)
The most important difference is the meat. Middle Easterners are using lamb or beef and Greeks use mainly pork but you can also find chicken.
💙
I see the historic Turkish connection to this part of Europe.
Food tastes divine when you are hungry thats all there it is to enjoying your food and if food is made, cooked well it brings happy satisfaction, i like gyros very much the wellmade clean stalls inside farmer markets types not open on roads with dust fuel fumes yuuuccvkkkkkk
I'm sure it is very nice, but a local bar near my university used to serve the best damn pizzas in the whole Northern Europe. The guy who runs the place is origically Greek, funny enough (the best pizzas in Southern Europe are made by his brother, who lives in Greece). But then they changed their menu, and exchanged those pizzas for gyros. I was deeply disappointed. Those pizzas were so perfect: the perfect thin crust, just the right amounf of toppins and in perfect balance. God I miss those pizzas.
I remeber in the 90's Jack in the Box put it on their menu and had a whole ad campaign on how to pronounce gyros. It def wasn't the right way....
yummy
I like gyros better than turkish donner as the donner so greasy
Good man
im turkish and objectively yes
Basically shawarma or kebab in a manakish dough. Would be nice to take the time to learn how to cook one.
Well main difference is pork and the seasoning and the chips. . . And the tzatziki …
عاشت الايادي رووعة جدا
It's so popular here in Germany that in my town almost 80% of restaurants are Greek.
See amazing food love eat
I need to drive for five hours to get one. But it's all worth it as I've never had even an equal to those I get there.
this is turkish tho
Same thing that makes Kebab popular its quick, easy, tasty and great when you are drunk and strolling home.
Love Gyros. Surprised that they put the fries inside; here the fries come on the side.
To cut cost on the meat, it's a filler
Many greeks eat gyros while they take a walk (!!) in the town' s main road ("wifes bazaar") at night ... So fries must be inside 😊😊
اكيد تبدو وكأنها رائعه جدا
Gyros and Shawarma Omggg Delicious
1:00 3:25 4:50 6:25
7:05 she's talking about cookomela grill in exarcheia and it's DELICIOUS!
Wow...nice food education...I've always though a meat like Lamb would of been most popular in that region of the world.
Its all the 'grease' that goes into it that makes it so special.
Envy is a sin
@@fredkanis6857 Envy of what? Lol
Just to make it more confusing, when you find a Gyros place in east Europe its 50/50 whether its truly, or a döner shop
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯
I see that you take gyros from Achilleas in Neos Kosmos area. Top 5 in Athens for sure!!! And Kosta is for sure the best souvlaki in athens with tomato salsa!!
A disclaimer should be included in the video clip for those who are on a diet or watching after 21h ;-)
😂sorry
0:27 it's not pronounced with an /ou/ in the second syllable, but with an /o/
There's no debate about chips inside gyros. In whole Greece we eat it with chips. Some people want to increase their profit. Apart from that, the place looks ideal for... tourists. Very small sandwiches; a Greek would complain.
I don't add fry potato ... only tzatziki onions...😅
Little bit of context on putting chips in yiros. In Australia, we'll add chips to pretty much anything. With that cultural approach and with our large Greek population it's common sense.
What does Australia have to do with it?
@@kristaps5296 Throwing hot chips on everything
@@CH3353N1NJ45 Huh. Is pizza an Australian innovation as well? Or is that one a New York invention?
@@kristaps5296 Pizza is straight outta Napoli, and its truly a global favourite because every nationality has their own individual take on it.
@@CH3353N1NJ45 Oh ok. So it's just the use of chips that the world owes to Australians.
huhu there is also question if you want to have mustard on your souvlaki or not
@1:00 that is why in the north greece we have different and precise words that translate to other language, unlike our southern siblings that grew up confused under foreign kings and dictators :/
☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️
😎😎😎😎😎👌👌👌👌
noooooo, never say kalamaki !!!!
You can in Athens, if you only stay there 😁
@@yiorgosst6898 noooo, kalamades nation strikes back !!! nooooo 🤣
@@Razamaniac 🤣
Σουβλάκες !!!! Χαχαχα αθηνα μονο καλαμακι 👌👌👌👌👌👌
🇹🇷 or 🇬🇷 how long before we see a war in the comments section
Greek maybe good but Turkish cuisine remain unmatched
@@Jamirio there's no maybe, greek cuisine is bomb, you just never tried it and you're biased. i'm telling you this as a greek-turk mix, both are just top notch.
I really would like to try gyros with pork.
Now that we have a war about who’s souvlaki is, let’s talk Greek salad...
Good Pita Gyros for me is ...cheddar sauce red onions parsley tomato ...or Sauce mayo mustard onions Feta cheese ...or the tradiotional apo ola .. with tones of tzatziki ...depends the pita gyros style
why is this in first person?
Why not? 😉
Looks similar to the famous Syrian Shawrma, thicker bread, though!
I'm Egypt also
I dont want to be "that Turkish guy" but there must be some corrections 1) They were not "refugees", they fled because they had supported atrocities committed by Greek army against Turkish folk living in Asia minor and they were afraid of vengeance. 2) This not a Greek originated thing. Arabs call it shawarma, we call it "döner kebap (kebab)" etc. As far as i know, gyrios as a verb means "to turn" in English.
I'm here as a Greek to approve this message. No matter where i travel in the whole world, from Brazil to Thailand, my first meal will be local cuisine, second meal of the day "let's find some gyros".
ate twice outside of greece and i threw it away. i wouldnt even give it to my dogs. these people are just disgracing our food lol
Do Greeks not eat or put emphasis on Lamb Gyros? Maybe that is why all Greek places in the NY metro use frozen lamb gyros. Personally I think the lamb gyros I get at Turkish restuarants is best
Nope, you cannot find lamb gyros, at least in Athens.
@@MrGiovanniOSFP is good though especially fresh lamb gyros
Pork is the best!!!
@@history_repeats8201 no Lamb gyro is
@@MbisonBalrog In the Middle East. Not in Greece. You must be from the Middle East
DW will go out of their way to even dub food talking about itself. We want to hear it talk Greek, with English subtitles!
I like tirokafteri more than tzatziki on gyros.
"Are you ready to give me a taste?" What?.
Are you? 😉
2024.04.29. 21:59
good boy
thats döner , not gyro that machine invented in Turkiye if you use it its döner
Greek souvlaki the best 😊
I prefer Greek Gyros instead of the Turkish Kebab counterpart. The soft bread, the white garlic sous. The fresh salate. mmmmmmmmm!
Turkish version better, you need to find the right place :)
Or maybe you are greek 😅
@@eren3390 it's personal preference, same as preferring bulgarian yogurt instead of greek.
By the way, Kebap and Döner ( which some people call gyros or shwarma ) are completely different foods.
@@faceofdeadwell, yoghurt is Turkish. Dont know how a Turkish product can become bulgar or greek
hows this different from shawarma?
Basically be it a Gyro, a Shawarma or a Döner, they use the same technique of preparing the meat by keeping it rotating near heat. The difference comes with the type of bread they use, for example gyros are made with thick Pita breads, whereas Döner or Shawarma usually with a thin flat bread. Gyros has meat, tomatoes, onions (sometimes fries) with a sauce( similar to sour cream). Shawarma has meat, onions, tomatoes and pickled vegetables with toum sauce( garlic flavored white sauce). While Döner has meat + all these vegetables, Tzatziki ( white sauce) and a spicy sauce ( usually Ezme) . Also the spice mix that goes into the meat might be different.
@@soorajeday9429 thanks for this reply my G
Pork
@@soorajeday9429 you forgot to mention that gyro's meat is of pork and maybe chicken,no lamb etc.
whabbout turkish doner kebab now ?
4:50
واو انها تبدو لذيذه جدا
10 EUR for gyros in Sweden...😢
@7:10 I saw the vegan variant in a takeaway in little england... disgusting :D
Cant forget za bepsi
Souvlaki is only one thing. The thing Athenians, and only Athenians, call kalamaki. What Atheneans call souvlaki, all over Greece except Athens is called "pitta with souvlaki or gyros or ....."
Οι Αθηναίοι μια χαρά το λένε... Όταν οι αρχαίοι Έλληνες πήγαιναν εκστρατείες ένα από τα φαγητά τους ήταν το σουβλάκι καλαμάκι...πήγαιναν στους γύρω βάλτους...κοβανε καλάμια...τα σπαγανε σε καλαμάκια...πέρναγαν κομματάκια κρέατος και τα ψηνανε στις φωτιές. Αυτό που σου γράφω το είδα σε ένα ελληνικό ντοκιμαντέρ με τις τροφικες συνήθειες των Ελλήνων. Κάτι παραπάνω θα ξέρανε από τους Θεσσαλονίκης...
Tzatziki feels wrong, but not gonna lie pita is a brilliant choice for it. We do it wrong in Turkiye with lavash. Greece feels like home
Turkish Doner kebab is the Grandfather of all vertical roasted meat on a rotating spit. All others, like Gyros, Shawarma and Tacos Al Pastor in Mexico, are variations or copies of the original Turkish one. Obviously roasting meat on a spit has been around for millenia. Personally I've tried all of them and they're all delicious in my opinion
If roasting meat on a spit has been around for millennia, the 🦃 version can't be the original, because 🦃 only ate raw 🐪 meat before they invaded the civilised homelands of Persians, Greeks, Armenians, etc.
@@kristaps5296 vertical spit! Read before you comment
@@kristaps5296 from Wikipedia; The name comes from the Greek γύρος (gyros, 'circle' or 'turn'). It is a calque of the Turkish döner, from dönmek, also meaning "turn".[7] Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat and slicing it off as it cooks was developed in Bursa[12] in the 19th century in the Ottoman Empire. After the 1922-23 Population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the Greeks brought their variation with them to Greece. Following World War II, Gyros made with lamb (called as döner kebab by some restaurants) was present in Athens.[13][12] It was likely introduced by immigrants from Anatolia and the Middle East.[5][14] The Greek version is normally made with pork and served with tzatziki, and became known as gyros.[15][16] Chicken Gyros is also very popular however.
Ancient Greek food
In ur dreams 😂
@@erdemozcan5435 do you get upset when you see Greek writing all over your monuments ? 😂
Right but "pita bread" is not pronounced pit-ah either (as in pits in a plum). It's pronounced peetah.
The international health food 👍
Yeah, if you want to clog up your arteries.
Greek diet is a healthy diet but it's a misconception that it includes gyros. Gyros is considered junk food in Greece. Much better quality than McDonald's for example, but still not suit for a healthy diet.
@@perseusarkouda dude, dont even put any greek food and mcdonalds in the same sentence 🤣 mcdonalds its just garbage.
Greek food is not healthy
amazing watching any foods that have evolved through time in situ and a product of the land and people. something is always lost when its taken elsewhere though, 'gyros' in the usa are more akin to 'donner' in the uk but like 1/3 the size, much less variable, foods in the usa always become extremely streamlined, diversity and quality lost.