Holy Jesus Crack
Trip Start
Sep 07, 2008
1
27
148
Trip End
Dec 09, 2008
Athens,
Attica,
Greece
Saturday, September 20, 2008
You don't know what a gyro is until you've had not just the lamb version, but also the pork and the chicken. You don't know what a gyro is until you've had a handful of french fries rolled into the pita along with the tzatziki sauce, tomatoes, and onions. Real Greek gyros are so delicious, so sacred, so addictive, that the students have dubbed their new favorite food (forgive me, their choice of words not mine) "holy Jesus crack." The students eat at least one gyro a day. Some of the guys have taken to eating them two at a time. They only cost about 2 euros each, so it is indeed possible to afford a gyro or two a day for the entire semester. We go into the corner gyro shop (which they call Red Door rather inexplicably, as there is no red and there is no door -- only glass -- and the Greek name of the place does not translate to Red Door), and there are large vertical spits of stacked meat slowly rotating against hot coals. You order your gyro (which means "rotating around"), and they use a special tool to take very thin shavings off the meat where it's been roasted. I'm trying to stay away from the gyros and souvlaki (mouthwatering chunks of roasted meat on a skewer also sold at Red Door). All that grease trickling down my arm cannot be good for me. But like all addicts, just writing this makes me look forward to my next fix.
