Messinian Salad

Wherever you travel in Greece, the salads offered in taverns and restaurants, apart from the ubiquitous (often stereotypical) horiatiki or village salad, are either ordinary green salads with romaine lettuce, chopped onions and dill, shredded cabbage and carrot (in winter) or a frequently uninspired 'international' rocket salad with balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese and sun-dried tomatoes. Rarely do you find salads containing local specialties that take their name from the place where they're made, such as the Santorini salad of small, 'waterless' tomatoes, rusks, stubby cucumbers called katsouni, chloro cheese and capers.

I was delighted to see that recently in both Messinia and Lakonia, a new salad has come into being that varies depending on its origins, but whose main ingredients are local products. In these two regions, therefore, you're likely to be pleasantly surprised by salads made with sfela cheese, cured pork, oranges, dried figs, raisins, lalangia (fried dough ribbons), balsamic vinegar, olives and local olive oil combined with lettuces , eggs, boiled potatoes, aromatic greens and the like, called variously, Messinian, Lakonian and Maniote salads.