Salad Time

For me, there's nothing like a good salad.  Fresh tasting vegetables, crispy lettuce, and grilled chicken to top it all off. This weekend I thought I would pay attention to the salad I was consuming and see if there were any noticeable differences between the quality of ingredients and its cost with regards to where I purchased it.  The first night I took part in my observation, I took a trip out of town to the local McDonald's and ordered one of their southwest salads with grilled chicken and a chicken bacon ranch salad with grilled chicken.  I love to eat and I was pretty hungry so I figured two salads were better than one.  I ate the chicken bacon ranch salad first.  The first thing I noticed was the bacon looked like the imitation bacon bits you can buy in a plastic container at Price Chopper ("Bacon" in a bottle? Yes, it exists).  The grilled chicken was flimsy and rubbery (warm and fresh out of the microwave) and reminded me of our discussion with Professor Galusky on in vitro meat (it still makes me queasy to think about).  The lettuce itself looked like it had been just tossed in the container and put in the refrigerator for the day; needless to say it did not look fresh.  I've never seen carrots sliced so thinly or bend the way the ones in my salad did.  On top of that, the tomatoes in the salad were soft and a couple hours from being not too enjoyable to eat.  I kept telling myself to stop eating the salad because the bacon bits were becoming unbearable to keep forcing down.  I ended up struggling through to the end and came to the conclusion that this salad was not worth the five bucks I paid for it.  I will not be supporting the chicken bacon ranch salads at McDonald’s any longer.  To try and rid the taste of the combination I had just eaten, I opened up the southwest salad and spread the southwest dressing over top of it.  It looked a lot better than the bacon ranch salad I had just eaten.  The grilled chicken looked a little better even though it was still pretty flimsy.  The lettuce looked the same but the overall look of the salad was much more appetizing with the wider array of ingredients that were used.  The chili lime tortilla strips and shredded cheddar cheese seemed to make this salad taste pretty good.  The southwest salad was enjoyable to eat and I would definitely order it again.

The next night I took a trip to Oliveri’s in town and decided to order their Greek salad.  Compared to the McDonald’s salads I had eaten the night before, this salad looked absolutely delicious.  It contained hearty looking lettuce, ripe tomatoes that popped when I bit into them (unlike the soft tomatoes from McDonald’s that squished when I tried to stab them with my fork), mounds of feta cheese, crunchy onions, black olives, chicken that actually looked real, and my favorite pepperoncini peppers to top it all off.  I went with the large size and my salad lived up to its name.  For a little less than the price of two McDonald’s salads, I had a mouthwatering salad in front of me that tasted delicious.  My Oliveri’s salad seemed to epitomize the terms “white meat chicken” and “farm fresh produce,” words that are printed on the front of McDonald’s bags nowadays.  I didn’t find anything “farm fresh” about the McDonald’s salads I ate and it didn’t come close to filling me up as much as the Oliveri’s salad did.  I assumed I could spend less money at McDonald’s to achieve the feeling of having a full stomach.  This may be true with their hamburgers and fries but they fall short in the salad department.  I may have waited a couple minutes longer for my salad at Oliveri’s, but if the quality is leaps and bounds above that of McDonald’s, I don’t have a problem.  I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and watch the latest sporting event that’s on the television while I wait for my food.  Good work Oliveri’s.