What Do You Get at the Salad Bar?

[Chris Amirault]

The WikiGullet topic of the week, salad, got me thinking about salad bars. I only hit the Whole Foods salad bar when I need a quick lunch because my school's offering isn't what I want and I forgot to pack something. So, today, off I went to hit it.

When I visit a salad bar, I usually look for a few pretty standard items:

-- several small florets of raw broccoli;

-- those little cherry tomatoes;

-- some greens -- arugula if they have it; and

-- a savory protein treat: usually some form of cheese or meat. Today it was four wee chicken drumettes.

Had a packet of Paul Newman's greek dressing here at school, so I used that. Easy peasy.

You?

[HungryC]

Similar circumstances drive me to the WF salad bar...I usually go for a mix of mesclun & baby spinach, topped w/chopped pecans, goat or blue cheese crumbles, and cuces/carrots/broccoli/other crunchy veg. I figure I'm getting protein from the nuts & cheese, iron from the spinach...if the croutons look decent, I'll add a few. Ditto for the chopped egg. My WF's salad-bar dressings are uniformly boring and/or bad, so I opt for a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar and a few drops of olive oil.

I always am annoyed at myself when I hit the cash register...it usually forces me back into a better lunch-packing regimen.

[Chris Amirault]

Yes, today it was a $5 salad. Whole Paycheck, indeed.

[JAZ]

I haven't been to a salad bar in ages, but when I used to work in San Francisco there was a pretty decent one across from my office. I'd try for mostly lettuce and other leafy (and light) items, with cherry tomatoes, shredded carrots and cucumber slices. I'm not a fan of raw cruciferous vegetables, so no raw broccoli for me. They also had a selection of things like pasta salad, raisin carrot salad and the like. Most of those were pretty awful, but oddly, they made really good chicken salad, so I'd usually get a small scoop of that.

[OliverB]

funny enough, on the rare occasion that I do go to a salad bar, I tend to load up on the unhealthy things, bacon, cheese, lots of dressing like ranch or 1000island, croutons, and other stuff that I usually don't have since you can't buy just a cup full.

But if I had to buy lunch at Whole Foods I'd probably go for their excellent curry chicken salad from the deli. Or a pizza

[Jenni]

I don't often get a salad bar salad, but if I do it's often at a deli or middle eastern cafe. I always go for legume-y dishes - chickpeas, lentils, beans, etc. Great texture and flavour in salad. I also love anything with tomatoes and onion. In fact, I remember once at a restaurant in Spain I ordered an onion salad as a starter. This consisted of tonnes of onion and a slight sprinkling of tomato, and I loved it! Wouldn't say no to a little feta, mozzerella, halloumi, etc. with my salad, and I love yoghurt-y things too.

[gastronaut]

Caesar salads. Slightly obsessed.

[Gardengal]

I share one member's affection for Caesar salads - or any good veggie-filled salad topped with grilled chicken. My downfall in the calorie department is my love of bleu cheese dressing on a salad, but I've learned to mix it 50/50 with seasoned rice vinegar, which makes a lovely and somewhat lighter version of the bleu cheese.

[rooftop1000]

I used to hit our local A&P salad bar for stir fry fixins more often than salad, or for all the goodies for a great salad at home and then get a head of lettuce.

I always hated getting a "lunch salad" from there because the lettuces were never cut to proper bite size. I hate when there is an entire leaf of romain draped down my face LOL

tracey

[sparrowgrass]

Lettuce, spinach, raw cauliflower, garbanzos, cukes, shredded carrots, celery, sunflower seeds and (sorry) ranch dressing. If I am at home, I add tomatoes, but I never see good tomatoes on a salad bar.

[bmdaniel]

Brought to mind this piece from the Times Magazine recently

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/magazine/mag-20Subversion-t.html?_r=1

[gfweb]

Back when the contaminated spinach issue was fresh in my mind I began getting only one vegetable item at the salad bar. Could be spinach or lettuce or whatever. I'd add shrooms, cheese, bacon bits liberally.

The logic was that one veg is as likely as the next to be randomly contaminated, so by only eating one type I cut my risk to that of one veg, rather than tripling it or whatever.

I understood that the risk was very very small even if I had 5 different vegs, but it was comforting to have some control over the situation.

And I really like spinach anyway.