Salsa Fresca (Pico de Gallo, Kachumber)

No matter what term you use for this refreshing salad, also referred to as a relish on the Indian subcontinent, it's good and easy to make. Cumin seeds are available in the spice section of many supermarkets, or certainly in Indian/Pakistani food shops. They look like caraway seeds. "Pico de Gallo" means "beak of a rooster."

For Indian/Pakistani style salad (Kachumber) (for 4 servings):

2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup white or red onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 fresh hot chili pepper, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seed, roasted
(optional) 1/4 cup of chopped cucumber 

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the cumin seeds, shake the pan a little to move the seeds around, and roast for no more than 1 minute. In a bowl, add the tomato, onion, chili pepper, cilantro and salt (and cucumber, if using). Mix together, then drizzle the lemon juice over the mixture and sprinkle on the cumin seeds. Good as a side dish, or as a light lunch with some bread.

For Mexican style "Salsa Fresca/Pico de Gallo/Salsa Mexicana" (about 4 servings)

2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 cup white or red onion, chopped
1 chopped serrano or jalapeno chili pepper (for less heat, remove seeds)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
juice of one lime
2/3 teaspoon salt

Simply mix the ingredients together.  

Indian style Kachumber with "roti," a common thin flatbread of the Indian subcontinent

WORD HISTORY:
Savvy-This word, distantly related to "savor" (British English spelling: "savour"), goes back to Indo European "seph," which had the notion of, "to taste, to use the sense of taste, to discern flavor;"; thus also, "to make sense of, to be aware of, to have knowledge, to be wise." This gave Latin "sapere," meaning, "to have taste of, to taste, to understand, to know, to be wise." This gave Spanish "saber," meaning, "to know, to know how, to taste," one of the forms of which, "sabe," was borrowed by English in the late 1700s, with the incorrect pronunciation of "savvy," with that pronunciation almost certainly reinforced over time by Caribbean French "savez."