Papa's Gyros vs. Tony's

Today I was away from the house around lunch time. I needed to go to the store anyway & I really wanted some tea so I decided to just grab something for lunch. I wanted something that wasn't too heavy -- maybe a chicken wrap. So I decided that on my way home I'd grab some Chick-Fil-A. I walked past a gyro shop -- Papa's Gyros and what's a gyro except a kinda of wrap? So I went in and got a chicken gyro.

Was it that great? Well it's really good but I'm not going to do flips about it -- the reason I'm posting is because it so reminds me of a lunch I had in Germany. I don't remember what city we were in but I remember the street perfectly. The way it worked was we'd go somewhere, maybe do a tour of a museum and then we had a few hours to wander around and grab lunch before everyone had to meet back at the bus. So this day, I wandered off with my mother and Tracy. For lunch, we stopped at "Tony's."

Now I don't know if yall've ever been to Germany -- or even if you have, if you got the same impression I did -- but from what I saw, Germans love some meat. Their "quick" food -- meaning stuff in cafes and from street venders involves huge hunks of unidentifiable meat. Not the kinda place someone like me is going to find 'good eats.' Tony's was no different. When we entered the cafe/resturant, the counter was immediately to our left. Behind this counter were massive chuncks of meat spinning on vertical rotisseries. And when I say massive, I don't want you to under-estimate me. I think it had to be three feet long at least and probably 1.5 feet wide. And there were at least three of them.

When you placed your order, you chose what kind of meat you wanted. Not that anyone there spoke English so we had no idea what they were. But they took your pita bread thing and walked over to the rotisserie with a huge knife and just started hacking pieces off into the bread. Uhuh. YUM! Then they topped it with lettuce and sauce, wrapped it up and there's lunch! Actually, it was pretty good as I recall. I went with a lighter color of meat. God only knows what it was -- I bet it was veal or some other baby animal. They love some veal in Europe.

Actually, I didn't like European food at all. I liked Italy's food. Germany though, when I think of Germany, I think of meat. I remember a street vender sold sanwiches. They were really just a piece of bread (and don't get me started on Europe's bread -- I'm American, i like my bread soft... or at least soft enough to bite) and large chuncks of meat. Like cubes of meat that were probably about 2 X 2 inches. There's no way in hell you could eat that like a sandwich. And don't think I'm talking about cubes of steak here -- I think it was pork. But it had a really hard outside. I threw it away. Honest to God, I just threw it away. That's how much I liked it.

I remember eating at the Weinersnitzle too. I think that was in Heidleburg. Who cares what kind of food you get when you're in Germany eating at a restaurant called the Weinersnitzle?

Man that trip was full of great experiences -- bad food, but awesome experiences. And if you ever take a trip like that, let me give you a tip -- you'll love seeing the real Mona Lisa and standing at the Trevi Fountain, but don't forget to take pictures of the "other stuff" too. Most of my pictures were of the restaurants we ate at and the hotels we stayed in -- people napping on the bus, and hauling around huge suitcases of souvenirs. In fact, one of my favorite pictures was in a alley in Florence behind a glass working shop. It was of Sarah... crying because a pigeon had just crapped in her hair. And the picture is beautiful -- the way the light shown down between the two tall buildings -- I swear it was straight out of a movie... only it has a crying red head with white pigeon poop in her hair. Those pictures are the most fun to browse through -- even my mother agrees. Remembering the experience is the best part. Sure, I like to look at a picture of the Eiffel Tower that I took myself. But the better picture, in my opinion, is of the guy that followed me for an hour trying to get me to buy a keychain ...and the Eiffel Tower appears in the background. Look at that stuff when you're there -- you can get postcards that show the rest.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well that sucks. It's probably for the best though, so congrats for having the guts. You're obviously handleing it better than I would be as evidenced by the fact that you can still form coherant sentences.

2:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually no. Do you know where Chili's is on University Drive? It's in that shopping center with Pleasures and Fergies and Lens Crafters. Let me know if you don't know where that is and I'll get you a address and some directions. If you were on University near Madison Square Mall and heading towards memorial and AWAY from research park blvd, then it would be like 3 red lights away, Chili's would be on your right and you'd turn in there.

7:16 PM  

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