Gyro

The gyro sandwich is most likely the invention of Greek immigrants who, sometime around the 1970s, adapted the cooking of their homeland as a way to earn a living by providing ground meat in a new manner, one that would tempt the sandwich-loving American public. Ground lamb or beef, or a mixture of both, is seasoned with herbs and spices and molded around a vertical spit that rotates before a flame. The word “gyro” means ring or circle, and the sandwich was thus named for the spinning spit on which it is prepared. As the meat cooks and forms a crust on the outside, it is shaved off, placed in pita bread, and served with lettuce, onion, tomato, and tzatziki, a yogurt sauce flavored with garlic and cucumber. Gyros have become so popular since their introduction that they can be found in major cities throughout most of the United States.