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Vlahaki Salata

I’ve been having a wonderful time thus far here in Greece. Wake up, have brekkie, a little Internet, coffee with friends and then off the the beach. After my swim I head home, have lunch and a brief siesta, then head back to the beach for my second swim of the day. Sometimes this routine gets interrupted, usually an annoyance and on occasion – it’s a fine diversion.

I had just come back from the Laiki Agora (farmer’s market) in our town and I also picked up some Tsipouro. Tsipouro is a firewater that’s made from the leftover grapes and stems – a by-product of wine making. Tsipouro usually hovers around 40% alcohol and it can come in a unflavoured version or with anise as a flavouring. I personally like the anise version.

Pretty much all of Greece makes wine and therefore Tsipouro is also made everywhere with discussions turning into heated debates about how to make the best Tsipouro and who has the best. I found myself to be challenged by some friends who wanted me to taste some homemade stuff. Yianni invited me over to his place and a total of four men sat around an outdoor table covered in vines and moscato grapes.

I knew my lunch at home would be nixed and the afternoon siesta surely out of reach. I would be initially sipping on the Tsipouro – slowly. A nibble of mezedes exchanged with more sips of Tsipouro would turn this diversion from my merry-old beach home routine into a blurry afternoon in Greece.

We nibbled on this wonderful young goat cheese. It had the texture of a Manouri cheese that was a cross of Feta and ricotta cheese in flavour. It was simply dressed with extra-virgin olive oil and dried Greek oregano.

These tomatoes were sweet, almost to a fault but I love’em like this. A drizzle of olive oil, grated dry Mizithra cheese and more of that pungent Greek oregano.

My fave for the afternoon was something Yianni described as a Vlahaki Salata. The salad takes its name from the Vlach population in Greece. The Vlachs are commonly referred to as descendants of Thracians and Illyrians. The salad was relayed to Yianni by a Vlach fellow living in Thessaloniki. He relayed this salad as being Vlach in origin for its simplicity: roughly chopped onions, slices of mildly hot green peppers, olive oil, red wine vinegar and lots of chopped fresh Greek basil.

When I first saw the dish, I was skeptical. As soon as I bit into it, had a sip of Tsipouro…I knew the dish was a winner! Simplicity rules! Fresh herbs from the garden and always with some booze to fuel the reminiscing, joke telling and camaraderie.

Vlahaki Salata (Βλαχακη Σαλατα )

1 small red onion, roughly chopped

1 small white onion, roughly chopped

1-2 mildly hot green peppers

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp. of red wine vinegar

1/2 cup chopped fresh basil

sea salt to taste

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at  https://kalofagas.ca then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at truenorth67 AT gmail DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author.

© 2007-2010 Peter Minakis

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18 Responses

  1. Oh Peter, such a rough life thus far!! You remind me of my days in Limassol, spending the entire summer between beach and restaurants.

  2. When hiking in the mountains of Greece near Metsovo we met many people who spoke Vlach. Not speaking Greek I wouldn’t know the difference but Thordis did. I was never offered Tsipouro but plenty of Raki.

  3. I’ve never been able to find fresh basil in Athens. I’ve also never seen a Greek dish that uses it before!

  4. Oh Peter, what a perfect mesimeri mishap! First of all, I am now dying to try tomatoes with mizithra and second of all, the Vlahaki salata with tsipouro ( I prefer it with anise too). Is there any difference between Greek basil and US/CA basil?

  5. You know life is good when drinking is an “interruption” ;-) The salad sounds nice and refreshing. I make something similar with tomatoes in it. I noticed you have “1 small red onion, roughly chopped” in there twice. By the looks of it I’m guessing you meant “1 small white onion, roughly chopped” for one of them?

  6. All those dishes look fabulous, but that tsipouro reminds me of Italian grappa. Is it similar in taste? I’ll be thinking of you swimming in that beautiful sea and having a great time.

  7. Oh Peter, we had a similar schedule in Syros and it was divine! Makes one forget how any other schedules might work. I mean how do we cope in the winter?? The salad looks very “manly”, not for me thank you, I cannot stomach raw onions, but I am sure it is a great accompaniment to tsipouro. Give me a call when you are in Athens so we can meet up.

  8. that salad with the onion and oregano sounds like it could be on a mezze here in lebanon, especially with the glass of arak; then a siesta next to people who have similarly eaten gobs of onion and everybody is snoozing happily

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