Over 15 years ago, we visited the Galapagos Islands. Anyone who has studied Charles Darwin knows that these islands can have a strong and lasting impact on a young mind. Our trip lasted seven days. To this day, we show our affection for one another by performing the mating dance of the blue-footed booby.
When it comes to eating salad, we still channel our inner giant tortoise. The tortoises of the Galapagos grow to five feet in diameter and can weigh over 800 pounds. We never saw these giants in the wild, but at the Conservation Center we watched them devour leaves by the bushel. Their movements were slow and deliberate. Their focus was absolute. Imagine a speed-eating contest filmed in Matrix Bullet Time.
The tortoises were unperturbed by visitors. In fact, they could give a rat’s ass about the noise and the photographs as long as no one got between them and their leafy greens.
We serve our nightly salad from a bowl better sized for movie theater popcorn. As far as we are concerned—and we assure you that the tortoises agree—there is no such thing as too much salad.
To be clear, we are not vegetarians like the giant tortoises. Nor are we adherents to the raw food movement. We just love salad.
When it comes to eating salad, we still channel our inner giant tortoise. The tortoises of the Galapagos grow to five feet in diameter and can weigh over 800 pounds. We never saw these giants in the wild, but at the Conservation Center we watched them devour leaves by the bushel. Their movements were slow and deliberate. Their focus was absolute. Imagine a speed-eating contest filmed in Matrix Bullet Time.
The tortoises were unperturbed by visitors. In fact, they could give a rat’s ass about the noise and the photographs as long as no one got between them and their leafy greens.
We serve our nightly salad from a bowl better sized for movie theater popcorn. As far as we are concerned—and we assure you that the tortoises agree—there is no such thing as too much salad.
To be clear, we are not vegetarians like the giant tortoises. Nor are we adherents to the raw food movement. We just love salad.
Fact: There is no shortage of experts recommending raw food diets. To hear them tell it, heating your food instantly turns dinner into a toxic event analogous to Chernobyl. We’ll let raw food guru Robert Ross speak for the entire raw food movement: “Heating food above 118 degrees [Fahrenheit] causes the chemical changes that create acidic toxins, including . . . carcinogens, mutagens and free-radicals . . .”
We are more than a little skeptical. In fact, we’re not convinced that a full-time raw diet is even good for you. Our skepticism is not based in scientific studies. It’s based on the direct observation of people who work in raw food restaurants and profess to live a 100% raw lifestyle. Members of the cult-of-raw are easy to spot because they tend to be thin and splotchy. And by thin, we are talking about the kind of thin that concerns New York models.
We ate at Café Gratitude in San Francisco right before it closed and our waitress was so thin and pale that even Kate Moss would have found herself whispering, “My God. Get that woman a piece of chicken.”
As far as we are concerned, a huge salad topped with some kind of meat is one of the great pleasures of being an omnivore. At the risk of stepping into the seedy world of food porn, we’d like to share a few recent salad creations:
Burger Salad: It is a rare week when we do not have a Burger Salad. In its most simple form, the Burger Salad is a hamburger with no bun and no fries, sitting on a bed of lettuce. In practice, however, it can be so much more. This one was topped with bacon, avocado and grilled onions. The dressing was a simple balsamic vinegar and olive oil; you can find that recipe in Three Awesome Salad Dressings.
Breakfast Salad: The French have known for centuries that salad is not just for lunch and dinner. We visited France a few years ago and we were blown away by the fact that most restaurants offered and choice at breakfast between potatoes and a small salad. We have since adopted this tradition as our own. We have also adopted the tradition of occasionally stopping traffic for no reason other than to remind the world that we are still here.
Steak, Salad and Kale: Sometimes our greens fetish cannot be satisfied by salad alone. We occasionally double up and serve greens two ways. In this case, the salad is dressed with champagne vinaigrette. We shared our Perfect Kale Recipe early last year. Consider this proof that we make it all the time.
Rib Salad: The idea of tossing ribs into an arugula salad is stolen from Rick Mason, the chef/owner of Far Western Tavern in Guadalupe, California. He served his version at the Hospice du Rhone wine event last year and we have been riffing on it ever since. Barbequed ribs tossed in a spicy sauce and then hidden beneath mounds of fresh arugula is so tasty and so perfectly tuned to DYC that we’re embarrassed that we didn’t think of it first. The key is to a successful Rib Salad is to let the ribs cool to warm and then toss them into the salad right before serving. If the ribs are too hot, the arugula wilts to the slimy texture of leaves decaying at the bottom of a lake. If you are patient and let the ribs cool, the results are beyond amazing.
Duck Salad: This may be cheating. The seared duck breast is technically salad adjacent. In our opinion, duck is best served hot. Throwing it on top would cook the salad to a wilted mess. Our compromise is to serve them side-by-side and then mix them bite-by-bite. For this salad we used a variation of our http://www.drinkyourcarbs.com/blog/recipes-three-awesome-salad-dressingschampagne vinaigrette that omitted the mustard and split the vinegar 50/50 with fresh squeezed orange juice.
Winter Greens Salad: We are big fans of using the greens that happen to be in season. Right now, winter greens are at their peak in California. The base of this salad is our recipe for Raw Kale Salad. The kale is massaged with avocado, lemon juice and salt, which greatly improves the texture and removes almost all of the bitterness. We then improvised and threw in arugula, radicchio, chicories, pomegranate seeds and pieces of blood orange for sweetness. We dressed it with citrus and champagne vinaigrette with a bit of the blood orange juice added to tie it together.
Pizza Salad: This is cheating. DYC lists grains, such as those used in pizza crust, as “Avoid.” The reason is simple. These grains are very high in calories with very little nutritional value to show for it. As drinkers, we need to avoid these kinds of foods in order to make room for the calories in alcohol. That said, DYC is a diet not a religion. Moreover, 90% compliance is still considered an A on Major Morgan’s Grading Scale. In other words, as long as you don’t do this too often you will be fine.
