The Ancient Roots of Greek Souvlaki, the World's First Fast Food
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Loading... - Nessa Smith
- 15 Sep 2022
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The word “souvlaki” is synonymous with Greek food, whether the term refers simply to grilled meat on a small wooden skewer or the soft pita bread stuffed with meat, tomatoes, onions, tzatziki, and French fries.
Although many cultures have a meat dish on a skewer, archeological findings and writings clearly show that today’s souvlaki comes from the ancient Greeks.
The origins of souvlaki as slices of meat grilled on a spit date back to ancient Greece. This food, known as obeliskos (the diminutive of obelos – “spit”), was even mentioned in the works of Aristophanes, Xenophon, and Aristotle among others.
A dish of bread stuffed with meat which resembles the way pita souvlaki is served today with pita bread was also attested to by Athenaeus in his “Deipnosophistae.”
Researcher George Katsos, the managing director of the DoitinAthens start-up company with the motto “Experience Ancient Greek Life,” says:
According to [archeological] finds, the inhabitants of Greece are one of the first people in the world who sliced and roasted several types of meats almost four millennia ago, applying a new cooking method to the traditional boiling process of the Neolithic Age. Read More...
