Do we put potatoes on the skewer? (Deutsche Welle also wonders)

Entire stores have been created based on the maxim “no potatoes on the souvlaki”, with the excuse that the fried potato makes the souvlaki base less juicy and fatter. A similar, less popular axiom is also heard about tzatziki, that adding it to the souvlaki “cancels” the taste of the meat.

Also, other questions, beyond the eternal “souvlaki or sandwich” that will probably never be solved, have tormented the souvlakophagos of this planet. Do we eat souvlaki in the morning for breakfast or do our friends look at us like we’re crazy? What does “of all things” mean, at a time when some people also put lettuce salad, mushrooms, cheese curds, and all kinds of ointments on the skewer.

So because these questions are so hard to find definitive answers to, and because the questions themselves are good material for small talk with other people we’ve just met (in or out of a steakhouse), DW decided to make a mini-documentary , in which a skewer is recommended to us (!).

He tells us its prehistory (from the time of Homer’s Iliad), with the help of journalist Marina Petridou, who co-authored, together with Tasos Brekulakis, the book of the History of Souvlaki. He explains to us why it is such a favorite “fast” food, and emphasizes that it is eaten all day, even in the morning.

With the help of souvlaki eaters, but also experienced grillers, from the legendary Achilles’ souvlazidiko in Neo Kosmos, we answer once and for all what “of all” means (onion, tomato, meat), As for tzatziki, and potato, the opinions continue to differ. Ultimately, everyone can enjoy their souvlaki the way they like it. Even with mushrooms, instead of pork.

In the end, of course, not even Deutsche Welle managed to solve the eternal question that torments Athenians and Thessalonians, and probably by luck, it has not caused a civil war, for the sake of a planetary spit. Do we call it a souvlaki sandwich or a plain souvlaki? It will cost 10 euros a roll and still no white smoke will have come out, I’m very afraid.