The Best Salad and The Worst Salad

After having an absolute disaster of a salad yesterday, I think I can safely say that I have had both the best and worst salads of my life.

Salads are great. There are many different types. I used to be quite fond of fruit salads, and when I still ate chicken, I loved a good chicken caesar salad. Potato salads, pasta salads, just plain leafy green salad, and even salmon salad. I like salads from around the world, and I love making my own. But in my life, I have never had a salad worse than the atrocious one I had yesterday.

The Worst Salad

So unfortunately, I am writing about yesterday’s experience first. I feel like a complete twat for being so irritated over a salad, but when you’re Georgie and you get annoyed easily and take things far too personally, well, sure.

I often reject people’s offers for lunch because they choose eateries that have food I can’t or won’t eat. I went to a Thai restaurant with a few people from work, and it was all well and good because usually I just get tom yum soup. Well, I don’t think there was anything else on the menu that tickled my fancy, since I didn’t feel like soup and it was a very hot day. I was disappointed to find no vegetarian options except for the salad I went for, really, which was some kind of papaya salad with vermicelli noodles.

It sounded a heck of a lot nicer on paper.

I probably didn’t even eat half of it. It looked and tasted like crap. I felt like I was eating soggy acid cornflakes. I poked my fork through the noodles, deciding that it tasted much nicer than the bone-dry cabbage that sat on top. I was pretty much wrong; the dressing was sour, full of lemon juice, completely acidic, and just made my stomach churn and my head hurt a lot.

Sad face.

The Best Salad

There isn’t too much I can say about the best salad I ever had, but it was just a plain Greek salad. There is no mistaking what it was – it had all the typical ingredients that a Greek salad had, including feta cheese, olives and tomatoes. At the time I didn’t even think that Greek salad was my favourite type of salad; I just knew I liked it.

It was in Hong Kong last year around Christmas when James and I decided that we needed to buy some groceries, and I opted for something healthy since we had eaten a giant Pizza Hut meal the night before. The salad was a little pricey, but when you think about it, salads are pretty pricey anyway.

I am not even sure what it was about the salad. I think it was the combination of freshness, well-cut pieces and just the overall balance of flavours that made the salad perfect. The olives and tomatoes were fresh, the feta cheese was cut into lovely cubes – it was delicious and enjoyable.

Happy face.

Comments on this post

Sounds like you’ve had a topsy-turvy salad experience! :P Personally, I never felt too inclined to eat much salad. I’m not a vegetarian, and frankly, my overall “blah” impression of salad is a lot of the reason why. First of all, I have a minor tomato allergy, and that’s a shame because I find they add a lot to a salad. Second off, I tend to prefer my vegetables cooked rather than raw. Then choosing the right dressing is like a labyrinth of indecision. ; n ; I never quite know what I like and don’t like. OTL

Admittedly, though, your description of the PERFECT salad had my mouth watering just a bit, haha! Maybe someday my tastes will change!

I love salads! Like you, I had a worst salad too. I believe it was the day before yesterday, and usually when Tristan and I get out of Sociology, we head on over to Subway. This time, I decided to eat healthier and to stay away from breads as I’m still trying to lose weight and all. Anyways, I asked the “artist” or chef (whatever you wanna call her), what would go good on the double chicken salad. She named off some dressings and I chose the Sweet Onion Terriyaki dressing. Let me tell you, the salad I had would have been delicious if I would have chosen the right dressing for it. That one was horrible. I had all my favorite vegetables : Spinach, Tomatoes, Olives, Onions, and Bell peppers. I really don’t think that I would use that as a salad dressing again.

I’m not really a big fan of the standard leafy salads but give me a pasta salad and I’m one happy woman. :P

Tyrone gets so annoyed when the only vegetarian option at a restaurant is a salad, and I completely understand how he feels. We should be encouraging vegetarians rather than driving them away, because at the end of the day it’s us meat eaters who are causing the global food crisis!

I like salads on a sunny day but I prefer warm foods like soup on wintery days.

However I don’t get filled up on salads and so I usually would end up eating more than I need or pile on junk food – defeating the purpose of eating a salad.

I usually never opt of salads in restaurants because I never like their dressing or feel it’s not worth the money for what you get.

That’s unfortunate that the Thai restaurant didn’t really have vegetarian options. Usually the places I go to have tofu options in place of meat on several dishes. The salad you got really doesn’t sound good, especially the part about the sour dressing!

I’m a big fan of Greek salads :) I started getting those more often at Greek places instead of the other dishes. One of my favorite salads is actually at a cajun place, and it has crab and shrimp on it. Very tasty!

It’s a bummer when you finally tasted something that makes it into the “worst” list. Hopefully that salad didn’t get you sick or anything. I would’ve probably hated it too since I’m really really picky with salads for some reason.

The Greek salad you speak of tastes delicious! There must be balance within salads or else it will taste a bit off; whether if there’s too much lettuce or too much spread. A little bit of everything would be great! Feta cheese on salads = win