Salad: A look at local examples and an entomology

I have been meaning to write about this, for a while, ever since I notice that in some restaurants, a salad can have up to 20 different components and in other restaurants a salad can be just one thing with dressing. Salads can differ greatly but usually have come to mean more than one item mixed with a dressing or sauce or topping of some sort.

The word 'salad', comes from an Old French word which may have been a derivative of an Old Latin word 'salar', which means 'to salt.'  The idea of a salad, back in Roman times, was any mix of vegetables which was seasoned with brine.  The word's first written origin was in 1390, in Old French.  In 1699, research was shown that the Romans and Greeks ate salads of mixed greens, topped with salty olive oil and vinegar dressings. So, the original salads, as a mixture of the leaves of plants, with a dressing, were composed of more than one type of green or leaf or stem. What is very important to note for my point: is that leafy green salads contain more than one kind of leafy green.  For example; an ice burg lettuce salad would not be a bowl of ice burg lettuce with a dressing, but a bowl of ice burg lettuce mixed with at least one other thing and a dressing.

So, we get to the "salad" that accompanied a bad dish, which I had Saturday night.

Now, as you can see, this is what they call a Frisee Salad.  The "salad" as they call it, had only one type of vegetable in it: Frisee.  It had a very light vinegar drizzled on it, without any oil or even salt.  Not only that, but this type of leafy green is a bit expensive compared to others like lettuce, spinach or even mesclun, so most restaurants don't place it solely on dishes.  So, what this restaurant did, was take only Frisee and a drizzle of vinegar, so even by the Old French or Roman use of the word or preparation of a salad, this bunch of Frisee on the plate does not count as a proper "salad".

Not to mention that overall the dish was boring, unseasoned and tasteless, which the bitter greens did very little to help liven.

Other restaurants, know how to make a salad, and do so even by adding one or two more things with a lettuce.

That is a good sized salad.

Take a look at your plate, the next time you order a salad and see what is delivered to you.  If it is a bowl or plate of one kind of lettuce with a drizzle or something, they are doing it to be cheap and don't wish to take the time to make a proper salad.

I also know that the term 'salad' can also mean any other mixture, as in a seafood salad or pasta salad, but again, those salads have more than one thing mixed together.  Otherwise, the next time you ate spaghetti with marinara sauce, you could call it a "salad".

A secret food truck feast

There was a food truck feast this past Saturday, but you would never have known it.  First off, it was announced in a small ad in the RFT magazine.  Secondly, it could have been a better arranged event.  Here is the thing: it was held partially be the Four Hands Brewery, which was on 8th street downtown.  The brewery has parking places in back of the building; about 8.  So, this event, was to have about 10 food trucks, live music and food and beer and all sorts of goodies, as well as the first fashion truck.  This is a good idea, but could have been a billion times better, had there been parking.  The closest parking, was on 8th street, but after those two blocks of parking filled up, the only answer left was more street parking.  Parking was done on the streets as far West as near St. Raymond's church.  Parking doesn't seem like an issue at first, but there was something gnawing at me: the vacant "event parking" lots nearby.  There was three, large empty lots within a shotput's throw of the event.

This meant that just a quick forethought on the event organizers, could have had those spots not only available, but for rent for just a few bucks.  Even if they charged a single $1, per car, they would have cleaned up with their 50-60 spots, versus not having them open at all.  Now, besides the parking and the tables setup for 50 people when there was over 200 people there at any one time, I'd say everything else was good.

My family and I tried as much as we could.  It was also important to see that some of the foods we ordered, were not only child friendly, but were inhaled by those same children.  We ordered a grilled cheese sandwich from Sarah's Meltdown: https://www.facebook.com/sarahsmeltdown .  We had ordered a grilled cheese in which my boys inhaled.  I think my wife was able to get a single bite of it before each boy grabbed half of it, and ate all they could.  It was definitely cheesy and I'd say as far as child friendly things, that was an easy 3 and 1/2 out of 5.

Next, my son ordered a dish from the Completely Sauced truck.  They say that they serve Creole Cuisine.  So, my son orders their nachos, which I wasn't happy about because I was expecting chips and cheese which sound great to a 6 year old, but isn't really note-worthy from a food truck.  These nachos were not nachos. They were $7.50 and it was this huge paper basket of sweet potato chips with what seemed like beef, green onions, and this amazing sauce.  So, I sat there, after having a sample and watched my 6 year old, take a fork and eat and eat and eat.  My skinny little 6 year old, ate the whole thing, which was probably 2 pounds of food!  The flavor of the sauce, reminded me a lot of the flavor of a sauce that Guerrilla Street food had on one of their dishes.  It was fantastic at an easy 4 out of 5 stars.

There was a Greek truck there called "My Big Fat Greek Food Truck" and I had to ask and order from them.  First off, I found out that they do everything there and even the woman, whom I spoke with, makes the yogurt fresh and then the woman makes the Tzatziki sauce from scratch, using that home-made yogurt.  They cook the meats, they spice and make the herb mix for pita bread.  I ordered the gyro and some baklava.  The baklava was made from scratch and made extra sweet with what tasted like honey.  It was so good and so moist and the woman said that everything, but the phyllo dough, was done by them. The baklava was a 4 out of 5 as in, you have to order it.  The gyro was huge and was great with the raw onions and tomatoes.  The sauce was great and the beef/lamb was delicious.  The woman there actually told me that at one time, they offered a pork gyro, but  no one liked it.  Weird.  So, the gyro was huge and was enough that I had to save it a few hours later and eat it again for dinner.  The meat was perfectly spiced and the first half of the sandwich was perfect and making me happy.  I think it wasn't until I got to the second half that I thought that the meat was getting salty and spicy.  I think there was actually a chili rub or spicy paprika or something that lent some heat, on the pita bread.  All in all, it was very good and I'd give both of these items a 4 out of 5 as you have to order them.

There was a truck that was called "The Sweet Divine".  The side of the truck mentioned that they had won Cupcake Wars.

What they specialized in, was cupcakes and they had this clever stand out front with what each cupcake looked like along with a description.  They had some interesting flavors and out of the 6 available, we had chosen 4.  Our four flavors were a Salted Caramel, which had an overly salty cake and a smooth and rich caramel sauce.  The Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough one had a very rich chocolate cake with a small spot in the bottom with some cake that tasted like cookie dough.  There was a simple icing on top and some small chocolate chips also.  The Neapolitan had flavors of chocolate and vanilla and strawberry that tasted just like a scoop of the ice cream.  It was right every-way. The best they had was one called "The Drunken Pig".  It was a beer flavored cake with a simple vanilla icing and pieces of crumbled cooked bacon on top.  The thing was awesome.  The cake part tasted like a really, really yeast-y, like a good beer and then the bacon on top worked with everything.  Now, there were four cupcakes, but every one was worth getting.  It was an easy 4 out of 5 and each was awesome.

Now we also picked up a Nutella crepe' from Rooster:

It was as good as a Nutella crepe' can get at a 3 and 1/2 out of 5.

We also got a large sushi burrito wrapped type thing that my wife got and thought was delicious.  It was from Chop Shop and I forget which one it was, but it was huge and perfectly done.  It also came with some Wasabi spiced popcorn.  I'd say that it was a 4 out of 5.

There you have it.  This was a quick run through of about 6 food places and what I thought of them.  If you see any of these driving around, I suggest that you flag them down and give them your money,.