Dakos Kritis (Ντάκος Κρήτης)

Dakos Kritis is Crete on a plate: a barley rusk softened under grated ripe tomato, crowned with mizithra, oregano, olives, and olive oil. It is not a crouton salad. The rusk is the body of the dish, old barley bread made to keep, brought back to life with tomato juice.

The one method that decides dakos is the wetting. You moisten the paximadi lightly first, then let the grated tomato finish the work. Drown it and you've made mush. Leave it dry and the salad becomes punishment. The center should keep a little chew, because Cretan food has never been shy about the teeth.

Use tomatoes that smell ripe before you cut them. If the tomato is pale and hard, wait for summer or cook something else today. Liga kai kala: a good rusk, a ripe tomato, sharp mizithra, and oil you would happily taste from a spoon. That's enough.

I write this one down because it looks too simple, and simple dishes are the easiest to ruin by carelessness. The region is the dish's surname. Crete made dakos from storage bread, sheep's milk cheese, and oil, and it still knows exactly what it is.