Shopska Salad

Background: I happen to be living in Bulgaria for a month with vegetarian friends. This happenstance results in eating shopska salad, a Bulgarian staple, morning, noon, and night; however, I never tire of the fresh bite. Maybe it is the fresh organic produce so easy to find in Bulgaria that makes this simple salad delicious. I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad that the poorest country in Europe (Bulgaria) can have higher quality, yet cheaper produce than America has. I guess I have industrialized agriculture to thank for that. Last night I made a midnight snack, and the recipe goes a little like this:

1 cucumber, cubed
2 tomatoes, cubed
1/2 an onion, sliced
3 ounces feta cheese crumbled
Dill and parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper
Oil and vinegar

In a large bowl combine the tomatoes, cucumber, onion, and feta cheese. With the last three ingredient pairs season to YOUR taste. Experiment with your taste buds to find what works well. Developing a sense of taste helps enormously when kicking a dish up a notch. Shopska salad is a great place to start exercising taste because of its simple flavors and ingredients. Apply the taste test when preparing any dish and watch your food quality rise.