Food Excursions: Greek sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce

When I moved away to college, I started trying new international foods. Being from a large family, our cuisine rarely ventured out of the confines of casseroles and stir-fries at home and Mexican, Chinese and Italian when we went out. But in Seattle, I started eating more Indian and Thai food. And it was in college that I experienced the glories of hummus and pita bread. The first time I had gyros, I was seventeen and in France. One girl in my group had taken French in high school and was trying desperately to communicate with the rather annoyed shop-attendants. Later on that same summer I had them a second time in California at a chain restaurant called Daphne's; I think there were lots of baaaaaa's throughout that meal with my teenage friends, but it was delicious. The next significant time was on the day I moved away from home and into my dorm-room, junior year. Mom and I found this tiny Greek cafe in Kirkland, Washington and had gyros and Greek fries. And senior year, ReBekha and I visited this hole-in-the-wall place near Taproot Theatre in Seattle's Greenwood district. I think that was the day that we skipped Literature of American Diversity to see a play. :) We both thought the flirtatious guys behind the counter were ridiculously hot. It was that very same class that Rick made Tzatziki sauce and someone bought pitas from the local cafe for one of our culture-themed lunches. Ever since then I've wanted to make the famous cucumber-yogurt sauce. Needless to say, international food is a bit hard to come by in Japan, although I've had a gyro/kabob sandwich on the rare occasions I make it to Tokyo.

So anyway, I have very fond memories of the meal. Now let's move on to cooking.

Gyros pose a problem since the meat is made in a rather difficult manner. They skewer it with spices and fat and then cook it through. Then they shave off the meat into sandwiches or onto salad.



This poses a problem to anyone who doesn't have this equipment and although I did find recipes to make the meat in a meat-loaf style, I didn't want to go to that much work. However, I thought that perhaps with some spices and marinating, one could capture the flavor of the meat, if not the texture. So I did a little research, and tried to figure out what spices to use. In the end, I decided on garlic, oregano, salt, pepper, and paprika if I could pick any up. Alas I could not. I ended up eventually adding cumin and that seemed to spice it up in an appropriate manner. I mixed these with extra virgin olive oil. The meat I chose was a kind of fatty steak. I cut it up in about 1 inch strips and poured the olive oil mixture over the top. Then I rubbed the mixture into the meat and let it sit while I worked on the sauce.



I found a recipe online for Tzatziki sauce that sounded good. I like to use www.allrecipes.com to get different ideas about how to make things. I generally find the comments on said recipes as helpful as the recipes themselves, since helpful members will post their own alterations. I used 1 part sour cream, 2 parts yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, pepper, and extra virgin olive oil for my sauce. I threw the cucumber in the food processor and then poured it into a cheese-cloth and squeezed out the extra liquid.



In all actuality, I don't think the sour cream is really necessary. If the sauce was too tart, more olive oil would have done the trick I think. As it was, I only used a tiny bit of olive oil, adding a little at a time, stirring it in and tasting it. Also, I only used a little squeeze of lemon as well. The finished sauce tasted incredible.



Then I chopped up red onion and tomatoes.



At this point, I had done everything I could do and since I was hungry, I wanted to cook the meat immediately. It probably would have been best to marinate it longer, but as it was, it turned out flavorful and delicious. Unfortunately, there was quite a bit of fat (partially from the olive oil) but I drained off what I could.



I bought the pita bread at Costco in Kobe and it's been in my freezer for a few months now. But it held up just fine. I took out one piece before I went to the grocery store, so it had about 2 hours to defrost. I stuffed it with meat and veggies and dabbed the sauce on top.



It was amazing! Soooo delicious. I had of course tasted the meat to make sure it was good and tasted everything separately, but together it was incredible. And best of all, it wasn't all that difficult either.



I'm looking forward to making these again in the future and making them for other people to try as well. Unfortunately, it was just me home tonight. But I was accompanied by wonderful food, and that helps quite a bit. ;)



Goodnight!