Horiatiki Salata - Greek Salad

Ingredients:

3 tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/2 onion
1 sweet pepper
4-5 olives
some feta cheese
1/2 spoons oregano
1/2 spoons thyme
olive oil
salt, pepper

Yes, I'm giving you a recipe for the Greek salad. It's just that people call every salad with feta cheese in it "Greek". This is the real deal.

First thing you gotta do is buy good, quality tomatoes. What passes for tomatoes in North America is hideous. Make sure they are ripe. Even if you are a poor student like me you can afford a couple of nice organic tomatoes once in a while.

Step 1:

The olive oil is the next important thing. If you know your oils, skip this. As for you newbies, get a bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Make sure that those exact words are printed on the label. I personally prefer Greek olive oils to Italian ones, but Spanish are not bad either. Good olive oils tend to be expensive, so you should get different brands for cooking and salads. This brand is awesome:

Step 2:

You can use any feta you like. I prefer older goat feta, but if that's too strong for you, stick with cow milk feta - "Macedonian feta" is good (not from FYR Macedonia though).

Step 3:

Chop up your veggies, add salt and olive oil and mix it together. Put a big slice of feta on top of it, and cover it with spices. After the salad is served, you break the feta into little pieces with your fork, and mix it with the veggies.

For extra goodness some fresh Italian bread ready for dipping into the tomato juice and olive oil mix from the bottom of the bowl. Yes, I know you're fat and shouldn't be dipping into oil, but it's good for you.