A Galentine Celebration and Michelle’s Greek Salad

“The Greeks invented that.”

That is my good friend Michelle’s answer to most “who invented?”  questions. It’s become a gentle joke among good friends.

Michelle is my Greek friend. She is in my Zoom group. We call ourselves The Seesters.

We’re eight mostly retired teachers from Southern California high schools. Most of us have known each other for years but we re-connected shortly before the pandemic and conjured up the Zoom group to try to keep our sanity during the pandemic.

It mostly worked. The sanity part, that is.

Now, we “talk” weekly, party occasionally and grab every opportunity to “do” local theatres, art galleries, restaurants and on and on.

Recently, we gathered around my table to celebrate Galentine’s Day and birthdays.

It was a potluck and we enjoyed an international menu that featured Mexican corn fritters and moles, Asian lettuce cups with a spicy tofu filling, an elegant hummus and crudité platter, a Moroccan b’stilla  (recipe on Blue Cayenne here) and ethereal lemon bars for dessert. It was a feast.

Michelle, of course, brought a Greek dish– a glorious Greek salad. 

Michelle’s salad was everything you want a Greek salad to be. Fresh. Beautiful. Scattered generously with creamy white chunks of tangy feta. Perfectly dressed with a Greek vinaigrette redolent in oregano. 

I’m a believer in Food Memory–the strong connection between the foods we eat and memories good and bad. For me, Michelle’s salad evoked memories of splendid summers spent in Athens many years ago where we always stayed at a modest hotel, The Plaza, near Victoria Square.

My husband and I used Athens as our travel hub every summer for years and got to know the people at the hotel. Litsa our maid, Kostas the manager, and Giorgos the Maitre’D always greeted us with open arms and watched over us during our stays with that over-the-top effusive hospitality for which Greece is famous. For those few wonderful moments, we were part of a Greek family.

There was always a Greek salad on our table at the Plaza– red and green with tomatoes and cucumbers and topped with a generous slab of feta and a sprinkling of briny Kalamata olives. The hand-typed white menu card on each table called it “Salade de Saison” and it was always “the season” for the Greek Salad at the Plaza.  

Michelle’s joke about Greeks and their inventiveness reminded me of another experience at the Plaza. My husband became ill during one visit and Kostas called a local doctor to our room. When my husband’s examination was completed, the doctor instructed me to go to a local pharmacy and buy some medicines and a thermometer. As I wrote down his instructions, I remember pausing and asking him for the Greek word for thermometer. “It’s a Greek word” was his somewhat pitying reply. It was my first “The Greeks invented that” moment. 

So, here is my beautiful, beloved, smart, vibrant, witty and compassionate Greek friend’s personal recipe for Greek salad.

Make it and keep in mind that, as Michelle would most certainly remind you, “The Greeks invented that!.”

Kali Oreksi! (Enjoy your meal.)