National Greek Salad Day

Halloween...44, Po-Boy Festival...63

Today is National Greek Salad Day. Not only is it found in every Greek and Middle Eastern restaurant in America, but in almost exactly the same form in tavernas all over Greece. Greek salads require a certain critical mass for the ingredients to balance out, so they're usually served in an entree size. Here's what goes into it:Green leaf lettuce, constituting only about half the salad
Sliced cucumbers
Green onions
Mild green peppers (preferably something like wax peppers, but bell peppers are okay in pinch)
Tomatoes
A great deal of feta cheese, crumbled
Kalamata olivesThe dressing should be an emulsified vinaigrette with a significant herb (particularly oregano) component. Dill is essential. And it should also include a significant amount of fresh lemon juice. All of this should be tossed with the salad ingredients, not served on the side or dumped over the top.Our two Greek restaurants (Acropolis Cuisine and Mr. Gyros) both make good Greek salads. But the best in town is at the Maple Street Cafe (7623 Maple, 314-9003). There it's served in a bowl made from a round loaf of crusty bread.

A really great Greek salad will still have a few chunks of feta cheese and a few olives remaining after all the greens have been eaten.

Olive, Montana is in the southeast corner of the state, not as mountainous an area as elsewhere in Montana. Although rock outcroppings are here and there, the land is flat enough to farm for wheat and for cattle to graze. The flat land is courtesy of the intermittent Mizpah Creek. When it flows, its water goes through the Powder River, the Yellowstone, the Missouri, the Mississippi, then right through New Orleans. A few farm headquarters use Olive, MT 59343 as their address. But it's pretty remote. The nearest restaurant is ten miles south on MT 59 at Broaddus; the name of the place is Hawk Alley.

Kasseri, Greek., n., adj.--A pale yellow (almost white) cheese made from sheep's milk--although some Kasseri is made from goat's milk, and sometimes the two kinds of milk are both used. In a way, Kasseri is an aged feta cheese, with the same tangy sharpness and bready texture. It's good all by itself, or as a stuffing for cheese -filled pastries. However, you are most likely to encounter Kasseri in the flaming grilled cheese dish saganaki, a specialty of Greek restaurants.

Today in 1862, in the midst of the Battle of Antietem, a sergeant and one other soldier pulled a wagonload of food and hot coffee through Confederate fire to nourish an Ohio Union regiment. It was the bloodiest single day of battle in the history of the United States, with at least 23,000 soldiers killed. The sergeant was promoted by his colonel to lieutenant for his pluck. The sergeant was William McKinley. The colonel was Rutherford B. Hayes. Each later became President. So, if you want to get ahead, bring the working people some food and coffee.

Boston was founded today in 1630. It was a suburb of Salem, the original British settlement in the vicinity. Boston has contributed a good bit to American cuisine, although the dish referred to by its nickname -- Beantown -- is not one of them. Boston baked beans are navy beans baked with molasses, the latter a product that flowed in some quantity through Boston in the days when it was a port for sugar from the Caribbean. Seafood in Boston is much better, notably the lobsters, scallops, mussels, striped bass, oysters, and codfish--although the latter is much diminished now by overfishing. Know this about Boston seafood, however: they don't fry with the lightness we do in New Orleans.

Today in 1939, Frank Sinatra recorded his first big hit. Backed up by the orchestra of Harry James (the great uncle of Clark, the Gourmet Truck Driver, a frequent caller to my radio show), All Or Nothing At All didn't hit the charts until over two years later, after Sinatra had become a star. Coincidentally, this same date in 1952, Sinatra's career hit a low point. He recorded a little known but lovely song Why Try To Change Me Now? It was his last recording for Columbia Records. He'd reinvent himself and make a comeback the following year, and establish himself as the most-heard voice in Italian restaurants in America.

The Smothers Brothers television show premiered today in 1965. Its satirical aspect made it controversial, and CBS got nervous and cancelled it, despite good ratings. Tom and Dick Smothers later opened a winery in Sonoma. Although the wines were good, their reputation as comedians hurt the image of the stuff. So they renamed it Remick Ridge, after their grandfather.

Today is the birthday, in 1907, of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. . . Pro shortstop Bobby Wine hit the Big Basepath today in 1937.

"From my table inside I watch the glamorous women outside who are lunching on spa Cobb salads without blue cheese or dressing. The man with the bread basket wanders from table to table, lonesome as a cloud. When he comes to me his basket is full and perfectly arranged. He gives me a smile of sincere pleasure when I tell him I will take both the sourdough roll and the cheese stick."--Ann Patchett, American fiction author.

"As you get older, you shouldn't waste time drinking bad wine."-- Julia Child.