Is Dakos Halal?

Dakos is the classic Cretan meze: a round barley rusk, softened with a splash of water and olive oil, piled with grated ripe tomato and crumbled white cheese, then finished with oregano, olives, sometimes capers, and more olive oil.^[4] In eastern Crete it is also called koukouvagia, "owl". The rusks, paximadia, are barley bread baked twice until hard, so they keep for months; they were once the bread of shepherds and farm workers, and every Cretan bakery still sells them.

What decides it

Everything but the cheese is plant food and Halal. The cheese depends on its rennet, the enzyme that sets the milk. Microbial rennet, or rennet from an animal slaughtered Islamically, is Halal. Pork rennet is not. Rennet from a lamb, kid or calf not slaughtered Islamically is a point of scholarly difference: Hanafi scholars at SeekersGuidance treat non-pork animal rennet as generally permissible,^[2] and Askimam sets out the conditions,^[3] while other scholars do not accept it.

Small Cretan cheesemakers often use traditional animal rennet from lambs or kids; larger dairies may use microbial rennet, and the label says which. Fresh mizithra is made by reheating the whey left from making other cheeses, so its rennet question is the rennet of that first cheese.

Ordering it

Tavernas across Crete serve dakos as a starter, and many will make it without cheese on request; with ripe tomato, good oil and oregano, it is still the whole dish. If you want the cheese, ask whether the maker uses animal or microbial rennet, or choose a packaged feta whose label says microbial or vegetarian rennet.

Packets of barley rusks are sold in Greek shops abroad; they are flour, water, salt and yeast, and Halal. For other Cretan food, see graviera, kalitsounia and the Crete guide; for rennet in general, cheese.