"Gee-ro" "Eu-ro" or "Jai-ro": Regardless of the Pronunciation, Gyro From Mr. G's a Welcome Break from B-B-Q

A typical "Yee-ro" waits to be bit.

I know most of you females out there are still pissed about the Casey Anthony verdict but I for one am glad it is over. After gorging the 4th and watching the cable coverage of the verdict on the 5th, today I was about as sick of watching that "reality show" trial as I was of B-B-Q pork, ribs, and chicken. So today I left the Gump in search of something that would not taste or remind me of "que" nor be too filling. The only other requirement was that it have no televisions replaying the same old tired gasps and gaffes and rehashed pundit soundbites relating to this year's "trial of the century."

Since I lunched at Green Papaya last week, the Lunch in the Gump contenders for today were: (1) a Sushi Cafe bento box, (2) some fainting goat from India Palace or (3) a gyro from Mr. G's. All are solid lunch spots previously reviewed by LITG. All serve un-American food which is not meant to sound unpatriotic. Finally, none to my knowledge have visible TV screens or at least the ones they have are tuned to some channel where they do not speak English. The winner was Mr. G's due to the need to do some business near AUM. I chose wisely. Perhaps better than the jury in Orlando. My Greek salad and Gyro at Mr. G's was just what the doctor ordered if not a little pricey at $11.57 with water. Our prior review of Mr. G's can be seen here.

But, I ask, how do you order it? I mean, how do you really pronounce the "G" in Gyro as it has been Americanized or Montgumphrized? Apparently, failing to pronounce Gyro properly in some cities is a mark of shame or cause for disdain.

To find the answer I went to where most Americans go today for misinformation: The Internet via Google (Follow the links to see the source).

I found there is a Facebook group named: "F*ck People Who Cannot Pronounce Gyro Properly." It is a group dedicated to the revolution against people who say jee-ro, G-roe and, especially, against french people who decide to pluralize and say jeeros. They conclude: "There are a million Greek restaurants, be a man!"

There are also those who get a kick out of trying to pronounce the word Gyro while showing pictures of weird looking birds. They provide all the possible mis-pronunciations and some pretty funny bird pictures.

Three girls from California, out one drunken night, decided to do an interview of a Greek Gyro vendor in Portland, Oregon as to the proper way to pronounce "Gyro." The very authentic result was "Heros."

Posters on Chowhound seek the answer because they: "Almost hate to order one since everyone in the gyro line is pronouncing it differently. Yarg." One "rockandroller" offered this reply: "Nobody pronounces it right and the people in the restaurants are used to it. The most egregious pronunciation sounds like "jai-roe" with the "jai" sounding like "pie." You're better off just trying "hee-roh" like "hero" but with a little longer "e". The correct pronunciation is actually a soft "g" which is very hard for most Americans to get right." However, I also learned that "heeroh" cannot be right because the letter "h" disappeared from the Greek alphabet 1500 years ago. They say "Yee-roh" is the correct standard Greek.

Believe it or not, the pronunciation of Gyro is the subject of a chapter in a literary journal named Linguist. You will be enlightened to know that some guy from the Department on Linguistics at the University of Illinois has gotten his masters in the study of how Gyro is pronounced differently in the South and East Coast from the North and West Coast. The explanation of the Greek pronunciation is as typically clear as most scholarly writing:

"In Greek, the word is spelled with an initial gamma, which is generally pronounced as a palatal glide before front vowels, so the posters in some gyros restaurants instructing customers to "Say yee-ros" are not bad guides to "authentic" pronunciation. Apparently there is some dialectal variation even among native Greek speakers, however, and some pronounce the gamma as a voiced or voiceless velar fricative, or even as a voiced alveo-palatal fricative."

Say it in "frickin" English next time why don't you? Can you imagine getting paid to travel to Boise, Idaho, to eat a Gyro and listen to how it is pronounced? Illinois tax dollars at work. I am sure they are proud.

I, for one, am more interested in how to properly eat a Gyro. One guy tried to show me on you tube, but how can you trust a guy who pronounces it like the people on the Facebook group hate? He was a sloppy eater too.

The ingredients of a Gyro include "Gyro Meat" from the elusive "Spirogyra" goat.

In any event, regardless of how it is pronounced, the Gyro at Mr. G's was very good. Served with an interesting variation of a Greek salad by a waitress from Millbrook who couldn't care less how I pronounced Gyro, it was the perfect lunch for me at this point in time. I also appreciated Gus P. stopping by to make sure I was satisfied.

Now, if we could only get over this Casey Anthony circus of the dis-functional family...

Αντίο!

If you knew Sushi....

              As a former military man, I like it when things don't touch.

--By Squeak (as told to No Grits No Glory)

.....like I know Sushi, Oh, Oh what a Cafe!

When the Monday Gumpers started rattling off potential lunch destinations, Sushi Café was nominated by yours truly. Bama Bing!'s response was a surly, "Sushi Cafe? Y'all are bold. I'm not so sure I'd even send the pigs." Well, the pigs had some fine vittles at this latest ZRED entry. Chase Allpots, Shadow Pup and I were pleasantly surprised as we parted the oriental curtains and entered this cozy, well-appointed café.

There were five elevated booths down the left side, two tables and a 12-foot bar down the right. We were greeted promptly by hostess-san and seated at the four-top nearest the bar, though-due to the no pets policy-Shadow Pup was asked to wait outside. The restaurant was full, yet our order was taken almost immediately. It didn't take long to go through the menu, with ten sushi rolls and four lunch boxes to choose from.

A bento box lunch is a compartmentalized tray consisting of a salad, tempura shrimp and vegetables, a 4-piece California roll, fried (or white) rice and the entrée of your choice. The four entrees are chicken, beef, and salmon teriyaki and a lightly battered pork cutlet. Unfortunately, they were out of the pork (Chase pointed out that a .750 average would get you into Cooperstown at least twice, but I equated it to a "C" on a test). We later learned that they withheld the pork due to Bama Bing!'s tasteless pig reference.

There wasn't much time for conversation or chopstick practice before the salad was served. The lettuce was about a 6 on the greenometer, but was crisp and was a wonderful carrier for a tangy, very interesting dressing. None of us gaijin could discern the tasty ingredients.

Moments after polishing of the salad, one chicken teriyaki and one beef teriyaki box were presented for our dining pleasure. They also had sauces on the side, a thousand island-like dipping sauce for the tempura and a soy-based sauce for the rice. There was also wasabi to mix with soy sauce for sushi amplification. The presentation is way cool and the taste lives up to the billing.

It's a great, light, tasty lunch that almost made it under the Tojo line: $10.89 including endlessly refilled iced tea. As we left an efficient 4o minutes after arrival, we were worried when Shadow Pup wasn't obediently waiting at the door, especially with China King only a few feet away. But all was well, as the Pup had done what we all wanted to do: duck into California Kraze for a bucket of yogurt. Jealous, but happy, we all said goodbye to ZRED with our tails wagging.