Iowa Greek Food Fest

A couple weeks ago (sorry, I'm a little behind in my posts), I visited downtown Des Moines to cheer for my sister, who ran the Dam to Dam 20K for her first time.  (She did awesome by the way -- finished it in 2 hours and 8 minutes!)  I heard in the news that a local Greek Orthodox church was hosting a Greek Food Fair.  My hubby and I love gyros -- sometimes I make him take me on "date nights" to Cafe Northwest in Ames so we can get our gyro fix -- so I decided to visit the fair and bring him back a gyro. A romantic gesture, if you will :)

I didn't take any photos of the fair because 1) I was in a hurry to get home for a nap after waking up early, 2) it was 90 degrees, 3) there was a really long line for the food stands and 4) I'm still too shy to pull out my camera and take pictures of people I don't know.  But I did snap some photos of the take-out Greek food I brought back home to my hubby.

These gyros are from the Coney Island booth.  Who knew that we could get an excellent gyro from a hot dog stand?  These gyros were awesome! They were drizzled with a garlic butter, instead of the standard cucumber-yogurt sauce. Loved this!

I also came home with a pork kabob, which was just OK, and a Greek salad, with feta and olives.

And authentic spanikopita (yes, I'm probably spelling that wrong, but I'm too tired right now to look it up.) 

But what really wowed me, besides the gyro, were the Greek pastries.  I brought home a sampler box because I couldn't decide on just one.  And I loved every little buttery cookie.  Truth be told, I ended up eating everything in this box by myself -- in one night.  I couldn't help myself.  The sweets were that good.

The Iowa Greek Food Fest is an annual event, so I highly recommend a visit next year.  The line was long, but I had no problem finding parking.  And the food (and Greek cookies!) were worth the wait.