two euros, one gyro

We were introduced to the Greek gyro on our first day in Thessaloniki, and we spent the rest of our time in Greece finding various street vendors, and becoming connoisseurs of this delicious and inexpensive sandwich.

Personally, I had two favorite vendors: one below the Acropolis, across from the bottle bar (the best chicken souvlaki EVER), and the other at the tram stop after the Acropolis, up a shady hill, and into a neighborhood.

The gyro: a grilled pita that is topped first with onions and tomatoes, and then slathered in tzaziki sauce. Meat freshly carved off the slab is added (usually beef, but sometimes pork or chicken) and then the sandwich is topped off with a handful of crispy French fries before being carefully wrapped up and handed to you. Occasionally mustard and ketchup are added, but I recommend avoiding that if at all possible.

We just couldn’t go back to doners (the Turkish equivalent) once we sampled what Greece had to offer. As a group, we decided that while there were several important differentiations between the gyro and the doner (crispy fresh fries, the absence of pork in Turkey, etc…), the biggest difference was the tzaziki sauce. Upon arriving back to Istanbul, we realized that we couldn’t live without it for the next few months, and Daniel became the first to successfully re-create it.

The recipe is fairly simple, and you all should definitely try it. We don’t have measurements, but everything is easy to estimate.

Tzaziki Sauce:

Ingredients:
Cucumber
Sour cream
Yogurt
Garlic
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Dill
Salt and pepper

1) Grate the cucumber and salt it. Then, squeeze all of the juice out of it.
2) Add everything else together
3) Mix, and chill (the longer you chill the better)

While the tzaziki is amazing on pitas, you can use it for just about anything. It’s great with any meat, or bread, and most recently was used to make “tzaziki potato salad”.

Note: NONE of this is particularly healthy, so unless you are walking 10-12 miles a day like we were, I don't recommend the two-a-day diet of gyros.