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I want to make a kick-ass souvlaki.
I learned to enjoy them many years ago when as a student at the University of Vermont we would travel up to Montreal to Villa Souvlaki, which made the best frickin' souvlaki's ever.
A variation is the gyros (pronounces "heeros"), when I worked in a greek restaurant. That is a spiced shaved beef - kind of the same, still served with tzatiki sauce, but not QUITE the same.
Unfortunately many restaurants offer gyros which are pre-made/ordered, and just awful. Not even close to what we used to serve in my restaurant, much less that I got in Montreal. I don't even bother ordering them unless I suspect it's an authentic greek restuarant.
Both gyros are fundamentally the same - a warm pita wrapping meat (lamb cubes for the souvlaki, shaved beef for the gyros) with tzatziki sauce (basically a cucumber yogurt sauce, some lemon juice and onion, if I recall correctly), then a light salad (cubed tomatoes, shaved lettuce, and onion), wrapped in the warm pita. Properly done, as they do it in Villa Souvlaki, it is SOOOO frickin' delicious, it's to die for.
I know at VS they dip the meat in some kind of marinade/sauce, but I don't know what it is. The Tzatziki and quality of the pita matter as well, but most of it goes back to the meat and its temp. I haven't had anything locally that has come close, but I don't live in a major greek area. I've had some in Germany that was pretty damned good, but still not like Villa Souvlaki in Montreal.
Anyway had any experience in making a kick-ass Souvlaki? (sometimes spelled Souvlakia)?
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