Tamam salad

One of the best salads I ever had, was at the small, but cosy, Turkish-Greek restaurant Tamam in Chania on the Greek island of Crete, while on vacation. Vacation means eating out a lot, which is great as you get to taste a lot of different foods. We had most of our meals at one of the countless restaurants and tavernas in the Chania area. And while there are many restaurants to avoid, there are, on the other hand, also some quite nice restaurants too. Restaurants that serve up nice authentic – and sometimes different - food. One such restaurant is Tamam in Chania’s old city, by the harbour. It specialises in Greek-Turkish cuisine and therefore the food is a bit different from the usual fare offered at your typical Greek restaurant.

We had a dish of grilled lamb with tomato, yoghurt and pita bread. Various types of grilled meats on skewers, a few salads and fried zucchini & feta croquettes with herbs. All of which were delicious.

Before sitting down to eat at Tamam we did not expect that a salad would be the dish to impress us the most. But in fact that was what happened. This superb salad is made up of various leaves such as Romaine or Cos lettuce, red cabbage, mint, parsley and was topped with walnuts and avocado mash. A real treat!

The salad did not feel particular Greek or Turkish for that matter. But it doesn’t really matter. It was simply delicious. So if you find yourself in Chania looking for a nice place to eat I wholeheartedly recommend Tamam! Below is my reconstructed recipe and twist on the salad.

Tamam Salad

½ Romaine salad in rustic pieces ¼ red cabbage or red pointed cabbage, finely sliced       1-2 small oriental cucumbers, peeled and diced 10-12 cherry tomatoes, quartered 30g toasted walnuts ½ avocado	1 tablespoon greek yoghurt Olive oil & vinegar A little fennel “dill”, finely chopped 1 sprig of mint, finely chopped A handful of flat-leave parsley, finely chopped Salt to taste

1. Start by trimming of the midlle stem from the Romaine lettuce and the cut the leaves in pieces
2. Mash the avocado with the yoghurt. Season with salt and set aside.
3. Mix weel together the remaining ingredients (except for the avocado mixture), add oil and vinegear and salt to taste.
4. Top the salad with the avocado mixture and serve.