Tuesday, July 29, 2008

fat salad


Today for lunch I went to this place in Richardson that I had been advised had good salads. I got a three-salad sampler for something like $7.00... and it came with like THREE POUNDS of salad. For serious. I think there was like a whole chicken's worth of chicken salad. I had to bend and lift with my knees (not with my back) to pick up the tray. Needless to say I did not finish that mammoth salad because I'm not in the habit of eating three pounds of food at one sitting (not since college, at least) and becoming obese is not a current goal of mine. But all around me were bigger people chowing down and finishing the whole darn thing. And it made me think about how much restaurants try to trick you with the salad, into thinking that it's usually a health option. Like at Taco Bell, where you basically get a little bit of shredded lettuce and then like a cup of ground beef and a half a cup of sour cream and a little bit of tomato and a heap of cheese in a big fried shell. You would probably do less damage eating about six bean burritos. And of course there's the worst (and also best) of all the salad places Souper Salad, Because you get unlimited refills of salad, and the salad bar has basically the equivalent of a cold tuna noodle casserole, and all the big people who go there serve themselves an equal ratio of lettuce to bleu cheese with some diced ham on top. Plus you can get pizza and that awesome gingerbread on the side. The only one I knew of in Dallas recently closed down because they're putting in a high rise or something, but it's probably better that they did because that place was dangerous. For me. It put me back in the state of mind I had in college, where you just keep eating because there's a ton of low quality food and you have to keep eating it because it's not that great tasting and so you never get satisfied, you just all of a sudden realize that you're really uncomfortably full and need a post-gorging nap. And then you decide that you should have dessert because they have a soft serve machine with sundae toppings. And then you forget how miserable the SS made you and go back the next month.

PS: anyplace I used the word "you" in the above ramblings, I really meant "I".

2 comments:

Mrs.Preppy said...

I think I know of the place you went.... Was it Cafe Max? Also, my first job in high school was at Souper Salad. I was a server. Would you like to know the calorie / fat count of the gingerbread and cold tuna salad? It will make you never want to eat there again.

Lauren said...

it totally was cafe max! the max represents what size you will be after eating there.