Kebab, souvlaki, gyros: How do you tell the difference?

SOUVLAKI or gyros or kebab? It’s the burning question that has plagued Melburnians for decades. Here’s how to tell the difference.

SOUVLAKI or gyros? It’s the burning question that has plagued Melburnians for decades. The much-adored Greek sandwich — or souva, as it is more affectionately known in Oz — began as a delicious, late-night staple and, since bursting onto our palates some forty years ago, has become the subject of intense cultural examination.

It has started foodie wars, cost countless pub trivia points and been the topic of many a heated water cooler conversation.

So, to separate fact from fiction — and settle the Great Souvlaki Debate once and for all — we’ve spoken to some of Melbourne’s top souvlaki experts to get the inside scoop on what the heck the difference is.

FOOD FIGHT: SOUVLAKI, GYROS, KEBAB: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Souvlaki, in Greece, refers to grilled meat on a stick.

THE MEAT

When it comes to souvlaki and gyros, the difference is all in the meats and, while we often use the terms interchangeably, there is a very big difference between the two.

“The actual souvlaki in Greece is a skewer with cubes of meat on it,” says Nicole Papasavas, whose family has run Melbourne’s original Greek restaurant and Lonsdale Street institution, Stalactites, for nearly forty years.

“That is what Greeks call souvlaki. Souvla means skewer in Greek and when you add ‘aki’ to another word it means it is a small version of something. Souvlaki is traditionally a few cubes of pork and a cube of pork fat for flavour.”

Stalactites — which opened nearly 40 years ago on Lonsdale St in Melbourne, is one of the city’s original souvlaki stores, and it’s first 24-hour restaurant.

Thomas Deliopoulos, founder of world-renowned Oakleigh souvlakeria Kalimera Souvlaki Art — which recently attracted global attention after the food editor of The New York Times called it out as being one of the best he’s ever had — says gyros (pronounced yee-ros), on the other hand, refers to sliced meat.

More: Is this Melbourne’s best kebab?

“Gyro means something that goes around,” he explains. “It is different from souvlaki in that it is pieces of sliced meat that have been threaded onto a spit, not minced meat like the Turkish kebab.

“We often call gyros wrapped in a pita a ‘souvlaki’, but it’s not technically a souvlaki.”

Souvlaki can also be considered a kebab. Photo: Sylvia Gabrel Photography

On the subject of kebabs …

Kebab is the collective term for ‘grilled meat’. That means shashliks and souvlaki as well as traditional Malay-style sate, Bangkok street food favourite moo ping (grilled pork), Japanese yakitori and Indian chicken tikka can all be classified as kebabs.

Shish kebab (Şiş being the Turkish word for sword) refers specifically to skewered meat, while doner kebab is typically made using spiced, minced meat. Doner got its name from the Turkish word dön-mek, which means “spins”. It is basically a slab of mince shaped into a block and cooked on a vertical spit then shaved.

There’s also Lebanese-style shawarma, Nicole says, which is kind of like gyros — but can also be cooked in the oven and then cut up.

More: Melbourne’s best kebab shops

Legend has it that the origins of the kebab — and gyros — date back to 18th or 19th century Turkey, where a man named Iskender Effendi is credited with its invention. It was then apparently introduced to Greece via Thessaloníki.

“It’s hard to know exactly where it all started,” Nicole says. “Greece was occupied by Turkey for 400 years and a lot of Greeks lived in Turkey, especially along the coast, so there is a lot of influence from both cultures. There isn’t anything that’s better or worse — it’s all good and all delicious.”

You know that big wheel keep on turning. Gyros keep on burnin’.

Kalimera Souvlaki Art gyros meat is made fresh, on site, daily. Photo: Sylvia Gabrel Photography

COOKING METHOD

Souvlaki and gyros also differ in the way they are cooked. “Souvlaki is cooked on the charcoal grill,” Thomas says. “Gyros on the rotator spit.”

For bonus points — it’s also worth mentioning that gyros is cooked on a horizontal spit, not a vertical one like the Turkish doner.

How many dudes you know grill like this. Not many, if any. Hella Good — the latest souvlaki joint to open on Elizabeth St in the CBD — is Stalactites (much) younger sister.

THE AUSSIE SOUVA

While lamb has become synonymous with Greek cuisine, Nicole says it was actually pork — chicken was never used at all — that was traditionally used because “pig farming was relatively cheap”.

“In Greece lamb was very expensive,” she explains. “It was considered to be almost a luxury, a delicacy. My father would eat maybe lamb twice a year and it was often reserved for celebrations, like weddings or festive occasions.”

More: Melbourne’s best souvlakia

When they immigrated to Australia, though, they quickly realised that lamb was plentiful and cheap, compared to Greece, and tasted beautiful. It was also very accessible so rather than using pork — which was considered the poor man’s meat at the time — they said; ‘we can afford to eat lamb now so why wouldn’t we’.

“They adapted to suit the environment they were living in,” Nicole says. “As people become more affluent their tastes change, what they can afford changes and their diet and palate changes. That’s what happened with Greeks in Australia.

“A lot of them came from the south (like my family) or poorer parts of Greece, where they grew up with nothing except for what they could farm. People often talk about how souvlaki has been bastardised in Australia, but they didn’t bastardise it — they adapted it to suit their new environment. And it really took off.”

Souvlaki from Kalimera Souvlakia in Oakleigh. Photo: Sylvia Gabrel Photography

Pork was the protein of choice in the original Greek souvlakia. Photo: Sylvia Gabrel Photography

THE FILLINGS

In Greece — gyros and souvlaki are served in pita bread with fried chips, mustard, tomato, onion and tzatziki. But these flavours were something the Anglo-Saxon palate wasn’t really accustomed to, which is why the souvlaki was adapted to become more like a salad roll with meat.

“It suited the tastes of people at the time and was easier for them to understand,” Nicole says. “This is what Melburnians wanted.”

Thomas also adds that, traditionally, you never put lettuce in souvlaki because it is very watery and ruins the taste. “We do put tomato, which is also juicy, but the juice that comes out of the tomato is very nice,” he says. “We also put chips, onion, tzatziki and mustard. In Greece, every souvlaki shop had its own homemade mustard.

“A red paprika-based sauce is also very popular in the north.”

Meat, chips, onion, tomato, tzatziki and mustard are the traditional fillings in a pita gyros or pita souvlaki. Photo: Sylvia Gabrel Photography

HOW TO ORDER IT

If you want to have what we call in Australia a souvlaki — in Greece you have to ask for a gyros pita or pita souvlaki, Nicole says. But this can also change depending on where you are in Greece.

In Athens, for example, you ask for a kalamaki wrap; Athenians use the word souvlaki colloquially to mean any kind of pita wraps. If you want a deconstructed or ‘open’ souvlaki, ask for a souvlaki-merida or gyro merida. Whenever you order souvlaki or gyros — pork will be standard issue. So if you’re after chicken or lamb — you need to specify: pitta-kotopoulo for chicken souvlaki or pitta-gyros kotopoulo for chicken gyros.

In Melbourne though, when you end up at Stalactites at 3am on Sunday morning after a night out on the town — whether you order a souvlaki or a gyros — you’re going to end up with something that is a) delicious and b) will help reduce the hangover you’re definitely going to wake up with in about eight hours’ time.

WHO MAKES MELBOURNE’S BEST SOUVLAKI? LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW?