Munch DC: Saint Sophia's Greek Festival

The people watching was grand. The music and dancing had had your big fat Greek wedding written all over it. And the Saturday weather was perfect. But the sun also meant that the lines were unbearable and the grub was more fast food quality than home-style cooking. On Saturday evening there was a 45-minute wait [at least] to get your dinner.

Though the smells were irresistible, the meal surely was not worth the line. The meat on my gyro sandwich was tasty but instead of being in the form of long, inch wide strips, it was in small pieces as it crumbled under the knife that cut it off the spit. The few morsels that there were sat buried under the handful of lettuce, tomatoes, feta, and tzatziki on the slightly warmed and not homemade pita. The whole thing was worth far less than the $9 charged for it. With this many people, the festival is doing its best too feed the masses. But festivals (including this one in perhaps more relaxed years past) often feature the skills of the church’s members bringing the tastes of their mother’s kitchens from the old world to their church’s front lawn. Not so this time—at least not for my gyro.

There weren’t any $20 lamb dinners to be had that evening; the whole lambs—six in all— were done for the day. But the whole trip was worth it for the pictures I got of them prepping a whole new set for the Sunday spits. The whole process (and the subsequent pictures) are not for vegetarians or the squeamish. But unsurprisingly, roasting a whole lamb is a pretty involved process, and that’s before it gets anywhere near the fire. What would you need to know to get on the “Lamb on a Spit Crew?”

The animal sure is fresh. The head makes you realize that the carcass in front of you was a living creature yesterday. And it’s really gory! The lamb also gets a garlic and herb rub down.