Greek Salad

This is a great recipe for Greek Salad! A friend of mine gave me a gift of spices including this Greek herbs. The mix was flavorful without being overwhelming. But beware of adding extra salt! When I visited Greece — many moons ago — I stayed in a wonderfully funky, Mediterranean-style hotel in Piraeus, just outside of Athens. Just up the street from the harbor hotel was a wonderful little café restaurant. They served Greek salad along with any entrée you ordered. The salad consisted of tomatoes, whole Greek Kalamata olives (with pits!), crumbled Greek feta cheese, thinly sliced red onion, sweet Greek cucumbers, julienned Greek basil, Greek olive oil, a pinch of Greek oregano, a sprinkle of sea salt and fresh lemon juice squeezed over the top just before serving. I know this because I asked the server. The cucumbers were small and sweet compared to the standard cucumbers available at grocery stores in the US. English cucumbers come close, but the only cucumbers that truly match the flavor are Persian cucumbers available at Trader Joe’s grocery stores. Also available at Trader Joe’s is real Greek feta cheese, but their Israeli feta cheese is actually much closer to the feta I ate in Greece. The main taste of a good Greek salad is the Greek Kalamata olives. You can’t buy them in chain grocery stores. The Kalamata olives in stores here are from Italy, or California, and mostly packed in brine. In Greece, the best Kalamata olives are cured in brine, then thoroughly rinsed and packed in Greek olive oil. This makes them a lot less salty and allows the flavor of the olive to shine through. If you want the best Greek Salad, you need to find a specialty store, or an online store, that sells Greek Kalamata olives that are rinsed and packed in 100% Greek olive oil. I hope you enjoy making this simple, flavorful salad.