If you’ve got some leftover cooked hamburger or leftover cooked sausage on hand, here’s an easy 10-minute lunch idea!
Gyro wraps (with video)
Tag Archives: gyro
Greek salad with tzatziki dressing
This sort-of-Greek salad was inspired by a gyro wrap: it has all the contents of a gyro, minus the pita wrap, with a modified tzatziki dressing. Gyro is a Greek dish featuring meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie, and usually served wrapped in pita bread, with cucumber, tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce. Tzatziki is traditionally made using yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and dill, mint, or parsley. Sometimes they’re also served with french fries stuffed inside.
Places to eat in Wichita: Le Monde
I’ve been to Le Monde three or four times — well, at this location, anyway. Years ago, there was a Le Monde downtown, but I don’t know if that was the same owners.
The West Street one looks like it was a fast food joint in a former life, but it’s been updated on the inside and out with a homier look.
The menu offers a mix of Americanized Euro-ish favorites: quesadillas, ravioli, chicken moutarde; and the Lebanese offerings which are (happily) commonplace in Wichita: hummus, fattoush, and schawarma. The entrees are dominated by pasta offerings: eight, to be exact.
Homemade biscuits are served free while you peruse the menu. Although delicious, they seem a little out of place with the Euro/Mid-Eastern slant of the menu: they taste just like my grandma’s shortbread (American farm food), and the ones we were served this time tasted like they’d just come out of the oven.
I usually get the fattoush salad with chicken, but today I was in the mood for something different, so I ordered a gyro. I’ve never had one before, so I have nothing to compare it to or to judge how authentic it was. But it was yummy! The seasoned ground beef (and/or lamb?), tasted sort of like breakfast sausage. A good thing, in my book. The tomato and tsaziki sauce was the perfect complement, adding a contrast without overwhelming. The pita bread was soft and puffy. My daughter was scared off by the tsaziki (yogurt and cucumber sauce), but after she had a taste, she didn’t want to give it back to me. It’s served with a generous side salad of your choice — my choice: fattoush, of course!
When she ordered, she stuck to what she knew: chicken schawarma. (Or schwarma.) This dish is pretty common in Wichita. The base of it is hummus — which I can be fairly picky about, since I have a pretty rockin’ homemade version. Then that is topped with chicken schawarma and, usually, some grilled onions, pine nuts, olive oil and/or paprika. Le Monde tops theirs with pickles (housemade, I think), and fresh tomatoes.
The chicken is tasty, but not remarkable. I give their hummus a thumbs up. And yes, I know I’ve already said that the pita bread was great, but it bears another mention! I wish they’d serve pita for the free appetizer, with some zahtaar seasoning and good olive oil. But then again, I’d probably just fill up on that! So maybe it’s a good thing (for my waistline) they don’t.
