Anyone know the nutritional information on gyro meat? You know, the shaved beef or lamb from Greek/Persian restaurants?

It's not really shaved meat but rather HUGE patties of ground meat that are put on a spit and "broiled" and then "shaved off as it browns.
The ground lamb can have a large range of calories depending on what cuts they used and how much fat was thrown into the grinder.
But figure something like 200-250 calories per 3 ounces that are around 30-50% fat.

There's a lot of variability though.

Wow- that is a high fat percentage. I am not surprised, though, because it is very greasy meat. But it's delicious!!!

It's STILL not as fatty as typical ground beef on a caloric basis.

is that the kind of meat they use at kebab shops? i heard somewhere that its abit questionable, as in one grade below dog food, so make of that what you will....although i'm sure the quality varies alot depending on where you are and the establishment

traditionally it is lamb...but might depend on where you buying it

Hi, LS :wave:

I, too, love gyros, but I'm watching my waistline, so I'm always wanting to know exactly what goes into these things.

I went to my favorite Greek restaurant and spoke with owner, who seats us anyway. I just asked her, since there had been some bad press coming out of Chicago about gyros, how she makes them. She actually took me to the back of the kitchen and allowed me to watch. I feel perfectly comfortable eating them two or three times a month. She uses a mixture of half ground lean veal and half lean ground beef (95 percent lean). She adds herbs and spices to the mixture, since veal is pretty tasteless without herbs. She forms them into tiny patties, then smashes them into little rectangles. Then they put roughly half a teaspoon of olive oil on a griddle and sautee them until they're done.

They also make their own bread and tzaziki sauce with no preservatives. Although she doesn't use fat-free yogurt for the sauce, she does buy her yogurt fresh daily from a Mediterranean store. I figure that's my "cheat", you know, just a tablespoon or two of full-fat yogurt.

If you love them and your local shops don't want to reveal to you how they make them, I recently went digging on the Net for recipes, and I have found quite a few that call for the exact same things my Greek lady uses. I haven't tried any yet, since I'm able to get them from my Greek place.

HTH, Fellow Gyro Lover :D
Lysne

That's great to know!
It definitely depends on the place that you go, but I don't eat strange meat from strange places, so hopefully I am not getting meat that is one grade below dog food...haha...Although my dog eats pretty fancy dog food b/c he's allergic to almost everything, so maybe that's not so bad!
I love Greek food. I always eat a lot of the tzatziki sauce (mmm) and it's probably full-fat yogurt, too. And sometimes I crave gyro meat and nothing else will do. Hummus is another weakness of mine....oh and feta cheese...maybe I should move to Greece?
Anyway, I don't eat gyro meat that often, so I guess I don't need to worry TOO much about the fat content...but i was just curious b/c it does seem rather greasy. Perhaps it's better than chinese food, though, right??

Chinese food isn't that bad..I mean there are obviously some less-healthy dishes like breaded/fried meat, etc, but for the most part chinese food is mainly veggies, rice, small bits of meat and noodles. You could definately do worse..

Isn't chinese food really greasy and high in fat? It always seems like the sauces are high cal, but am I wrong? My favorite is black bean sauce...is that a good one?

I guess I just always assumed chinese food was horrible for you, but maybe I was wrong. Great!

I guess it depends on where you get it from, but the kind I get is lightly stirfried in a wok with a little (canola) oil, just enough to heat it or cook it without drenching it in oil. It also depends on the sauce, too. Generally though, chinese food consists of LOTS of veggies, a little bit of bit and noodles and/or rice. Which, if you ask me, is pretty healthy in terms of 'junk food'. Yes, it's stirfried, but it's done in a wok so it's tossed constantly on high heat, cooking quickly.