All hail the cone of meat...

All hail the cone of meat.

When I say cone of meat, what I really mean is a gyro sandwich. If you've never had the pleasure of having one of these tasty delectible things, I highly suggest you take this under advisement, and get yourself to the nearest Greek deli or middle eastern food joint post haste, and experience it first hand. I work in a town called Roxboro, NC, which is about as far from Egypt as you can get, and yet, there is a group of Egyptian immigrants who have a deli in town. Rightly so, they named it The American Hero, because to name it something else, the local riff raff would not know what to make of it. Like if they named it Mubarak's Sandwich Shack, or something like that. I'm still surprised when I walk into the place, and they're all still there because the townspeople of Roxboro probably think they're terrorists anyway. They speak Arabic, and are dark complected, but they seem to have a thriving business, and that is awesome indeed, and without them there, I definitely would not get the good food that they serve. The place is great. They have about 30 different sandwiches, hot meals, and other stuff laying around the joint. Good stuff, all of it. And in a stroke of brilliance, after 9-11, they plastered American flags all over the place, and pictures of Jesus Christ (even though they are all Muslims that work there), and their business grew immensely. I salute them for being smart and savvy enough to realize that they needed to do something or their business probably would have gotten cut in half. Anyway, back to the cone of meat.

So the expression cone of meat comes from the fact that there is an actual cone of meat sitting behind the counter. When you order a gyro, they get out the sharp long ass knife and start slicing nice big chunks of meat off of the cone of meat as it spins on a spit being warmed. I think the meat is some kind of weird beef/lamb compaction pressed meat loaf, but whatever the hell it is, it's freakin' good as well. Throw said meat onto a pita, some lettuce, green olives, feta, tomatoes, maybe some onions (if you like that sort of thing), and of course soak the entire comglomeration in taziki sauce (yogurt and cucumber sauce that's tasty as all get out). Look, one of these things will make you slap your momma they're so good. No, seriously, you'd go home and be like, "Mom. I have to slap you because I just had the best sandwich ever." OK, maybe it's not that good, but it's damn close my friend, damn close. Check out the following links for pictures of the actual cone of meat, and the sandwich itself:

http://mirrorimageorigin.collegepublisher.com/media/paper333/stills/66yx0cf2.jpg

http://www.greciangyros.net/objects/gyro.jpg

I have spoken to the guys at The American Hero many times over the last 4 years that I've been going there since taking the job in God forsaken Roxboro, and they are extremely interesting and nice people to be sure. Hard working as anything, and just genuinely nice. I've talked to them about their religion, about the conditions of their home country, the upcoming elections in Egypt, and their politics because I like to get a feel for what other people, especially folks who have moved into the US, think about the conditions in the country, how it relates back to their own country, and what their general overall impression is of the US of A in general. I probably should give their place of business a plug if I can find a website out there for them. OK, there isn't a website for them, but if you're ever passing through Roxboro (don't know what else you'd be doing there), stop in, get something to eat, you'll dig it.