My Top 5 Salads

I love salads, and are still exploring salad at different places. Granted, the "Spinning Salads" at Lawry's restaurant is very sumptuous, as well as the gigantic salads at Tony Romas steakouse, or soft shell crab salads at Fish & Co etc, but I would like to list my usual salad digs here, places that I would flop to satiate my salad cravings at all times.


1. CAESAR SALAD at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

Photo source: http://www.liyanahanim.com/2011/09/i-know-i-know.html

The classic Caesar Salad with fresh, leafy lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, croutons, crispy bacon bits and additional order of smoked salmon (SGD$12.90) was a must-have whenever I popped by the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I liked the traditional ingredients of what made a good Caesar Salad, and the smoked salmon added flavors to the fresh, light dish. It was the first time I fell in love with salads.

Disappointingly though, they have changed the menu for their Caesar Salad about a year back - the salad tastes different now, and instead of bacon bits they use large strips of non-crispy bacon with a very pungent (raw meat?) flavor to it. The current Caesar Salad costs more too, so it is a pity, really.


2. CAESAR SALAD WITH SMOKED SALMON IN 
CHEESE BASKET at THE COFFEE CLUB

Now this is another Caesar Salad (SGD $15.90) to reckon with. They have the sweetly-fresh Romaine lettuce, crispy bacon bits and croutons - traditional ingredients of a good, classic Caesar Salad as well (although no eggs, a pity), and comes with my favorite smoked salmon. The sapid saltiness of smoked salmon, and the bouncy texture, always adds flavor to the lightly-flavored salad.

The best part is the "bowl" this Caesar Salad is served in - a thin cheese basket. At least two male friends / clients I know love this salad too, because of the taste and largely because of this tasty cheese basket.


3. TUNA SANS SALAD at THE SALAD STOP

I loved this salad from first bite, 3 years ago, and I still love it. The Tuna Sans salad (SGD$12.90) is a wonderful concoction of crunchy Romaine lettuce, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes, mandarin oranges, avocado, breadstick and lovely peppery seared slices of fresh tuna. The dressing is sour, like lime / lemon juice, and the overall taste of this salad is wonder exploding on the palate. This is one healthy salad I wouldn't mind having everyday for meals, really.


4.  CREATE-YOUR-OWN-SALAD at THE SALAD SHOP

I discovered this place place that serves fresh, create-your-own salad for SGD$10.00 (6 items), SGD$12.00 (for 6 basic items + 2 Toppings) or SGD$13.00 (for 6 basic items + Toppings + 2 Prime items).  This salad cost me SGD$13.00, and we tick all the items we want on an order chit placed on the tables.

My salad base was Lettuce. The 6 main items I chose were hard-boiled egg, kidney beans, black olives, carrot, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese. The 2 Toppings (I'd only added this tier so I could add on the next 2 prime items) were cashew nuts and avocado. Then the main item I wanted (next 2 items) were the dried blueberries and prawns.

I chose the vinaigrette dressing, so it gave the salad a citrusy, refreshing flavor. Overall, the salad comprised of rather fresh ingredients, but I thought that the overwhelming amount of ingredients made it rather hard to chew.


5. SALADS WITH GRILLED MEAT at THE LAWN CAFE

This is a very new discovery, and a new love. You select your items from the order chit, and select grilled meat of choice. The ingredients are fresh, and the dressings are all home-made. I wrote an entry here so feel free to pop by for details on this place serving awesome salads. So one could have their healthy salads and satiate meat cravings at the same time without feeling guilty.

Here ends my salad journey, and as mentioned, I am still trying out more salads. Sometimes I make my own at home too - the best part is that you get to put any kinds of ingredients as you deem fit, and control the serving size.  It is fun to make one's own salads too, and you can be sure that the ingredients used are fresh.