Gyros / America's Top Gyros Favorite Street Foods / America Street Food

Gyros
A gyro or gyros is a Greek dish made from meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Originally lamb, in Greece it is now most often pork, or chicken, while a mixture of beef and lamb is common in the U.S. and other countries. Main ingredients: Meat: beef, veal, mutton, pork, or chicken. Place of origin: Greece. Serving temperature: Hot.

The Greek word gyro means "spin," and that makes sense when you think of those huge cones of mystery meat spinning on their axes in sidewalk restaurants around the world. Before it became street fare, the gyro was popular long ago in Greece. Traditionally, these meat cones were made by hand from a combination of beef and lamb trimmings, rice cake, breadcrumbs and oregano. Then, one day in Milwaukee in the early 1970s, a Jewish-American entrepreneur named (believe it or not) John Garlic was brainstorming with his wife Margaret when they dreamed up the idea of mass-producing that spinning meat. Voila -- Old World met New World to create an enduring street-side favorite.