Gyros

Gyros is Greece's favourite street food: seasoned meat stacked on a tall vertical spit, slow-roasted as it turns, then shaved into thin, crisp-edged slices. In Greece the meat is most often pork or chicken, layered with fat so it stays juicy under the heat. The shavings are tucked into a warm, lightly grilled pita along with tomato, sliced onion, a handful of chips and a generous smear of cool, garlicky tzatziki.

Wrapped tightly in paper, a gyros pita is meant to be eaten on the move — cheap, filling and satisfying. Order it 'me apo ola' (with everything) and you get hot meat, fresh vegetables, starchy chips and tangy yoghurt sauce in every bite. For a plated version of similar spit-grilled meat, try its close cousin souvlaki. It is the taste that defines a late night out or a quick lunch across Greece — and a highlight of any trip island hopping through Greece.

Spit-roasting stacked meat has a long history in the eastern Mediterranean, closely related to the Turkish döner kebab and the Levantine shawarma. The Greek version took shape in the twentieth century, and the name gyros comes from the Greek word for 'turn' or 'revolution', describing the rotating spit. It largely replaced an older borrowed term for the dish in Greece after the mid-1900s.

Gyros spread with the Greek diaspora and became one of the country's best-known culinary exports, though abroad it is often made with lamb or beef rather than the pork common at home. In Greece it remains firmly working-class comfort food — sold from busy windows in every town, eaten standing on the pavement, and priced so that a full, satisfying meal is within almost anyone's reach.