Salad Days
It occurred to me relatively late in life that many people don’t like salad. For a lover of vegetables such as myself, this was incomprehensible at first. I’d grown up eating a simple green salad with dinner almost every night, and was delighted as a child to be in command of a salad bar. I would even order the occasional diner Caesar after a night of drinking in my early twenties. (Fries or a slice of pizza is good, but there’s something to be said about croutons and parm at 2 AM.)
The salad-skeptic phenomenon made more sense, however, once I came to understand the pitiful state of greenery that passed for a “salad” in many diets. Bagged lettuces, bottled dressings, a curious lack of salt or garlic, the dumpster-dive milieu of pre-Sweetgreen-era bowls — I was aware of all of this, but I don’t think I realized they comprised the totality of the salad experience for many people.
The state of salad seems better than ever now, largely due to the farmer’s market ethos that has reshaped so many popular ideas of food. But there are still some basic rules that bear repeating if you’re averse to — or just simply bored with — a bowl of lettuce and dressing. Here are three that I swear by: