Greek Salad (NYHT, April 1962)

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   From THIS WEEK magazine, NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE, 1 April 1962, pg. 20, col. 1:

HOW AMERICA EATS
By Clementine Paddleford

_Enough Salad for Everyone!_
_Here's a Florida Gulf Coast favorite: Greek Salad.  It's made with vegetables, greens, cheese, fish and a flourish!_

TARPON SPRINGS, FLA.
   OLD GREECE SURVIVES in modern America.  We can't all go visiting around the islands in the sun like Mrs. John F. Kennedy.  But why not visit little Greece right here at home, sponge fishermen and all?  The place is Tarpon Springs, Florida.  Location on the Auclote River, 28 miles northwest of the city of Tampa.  Here is a Greek community with the customs, language and foods straight from the (Col. 2--ed.) homeland.  Natives of this town came years ago from Greece to harvest the sponges found in the Gulf of Mexico.  Today curio shops line the docks where the sponge fleet ties up.  Everywhere sponges for sale.  Taverns offer Greek foods.
   Louis Pappas' is the most famous restaurant, the most spectacular dish the Greek Salad, built on a platter and up to a peak, like a mosaic, beautiful to (Col. 3--ed.) behold.  Tampa women copy the salad.  So do the restaurants in the old Spanish section of Ybor City.
   I was in Tampa for the Gasparilla Festival, in February.  The salad was demonstrated for me by Annie Laurie (Mrs. Louis M.) Saxton as one of the best recipes in the new Junior League "Gasparilla Cookbook."  Later I drove to Tarpon Springs to sample the original in the Pappas' tavern.
   (Pg. 21, col. 1--ed.)
   Tall, dark Lucas, one of three brothers who owns this restaurant, told me about father Louis who started the place 40 years ago.  Louis had come to this country in 1904 with his father to work in New York.  After two years Papa returned to Greece; Louis loved it here and stayed on.  World War I and he was in the Army, followed a restaurant in Miami, losing his all in the boom crash.  Next to Tarpon Springs to start over again.  Today Louis' three sons carry on, Michael, Lucas and Jack.  The Greek Salad is the menu star, so popular it requires a head salad man and several assistants to serve the public demand.

_LOUIS PAPPAS' GREEK SALAD_

6 cooked potatoes, diced
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup saladdressing
Salt
1 large head iceberg lettuce
12 roka leaves (Greek vegetables) or 12 sprigs water cress
2 tomatoes, each cut into 6 wedges
1 cucumber, pared and cut lengthwise into 8 fingers
1 avocado, peeled and cut into wedges
4 slices Feta (Greek cheese)
1 green pepper, cut crosswise to make 8 rings
4 slices canned cooked beets
4 shrimp, cooked and cleaned
4 anchovy fillets
12 black olives (Greek style preferred)
4 radishes, fancily cut
4 whole green onions
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup each, olive oil and salad oil, blended
Oregano to taste

Combine potatoes with next four ingredients; toss lightly to blend.  Ad salt to taste.  Line a large platter with outside lettuce leaves.  Place potato salad in a mound in the center.  Cover with remaining lettuce which has been shredded.  Arrange the roka leaves on top.  Place tomato wedges around the outer edge and on top of roka leaves.  Arrange cucumber fingers between tomato wedges to make a solid base for the salad.  Place avocado slices around tomato and cucumber base.  Arrange Feta cheese slices on top the salad.  Place (Col. 2--ed.) green pepper slices over cheese.  At very top of salad, place the sliced beets with a shrimp on each beet slice and an anchovy fillet on each shrimp.  Place olives, radishes and green onions as desired.  Sprinkle salad with vinegar, then wth blended oil.  Add oregano.  Serve with garlic toasted Greek bread.  Yield: 4 portions.
--THE END

(PHOTO CAPTION:  SKYSCRAPER SALAD. Mrs. Saxton's version.)

(Compare this recipe with the GOURMET version posted here, from 1958--ed.)