When I first visited New York with my mum in high school, I feel in love with two things: Crate&Barrel and the NYC deli salad bar. What can I say, I'm a sucker for overpriced sliced melon.
The truth is, though, that since living here, I never buy lunch at those delis. My youthful enthuasiam didn't stand the test of time (and I've recently learned from Ben Ryder Howe's forthcoming -- and utterly brilliant -- memoir, My Korean Deli (look for it in March, 2011) that steam tables are a breeding ground for bacteria).
Instead, for the first four and a half years, I very often bought my lunch from the "chopped" salad shops that cover the city. This was my second love affair with salad in the city. My go-to ingredients were chickpeas (always), cheese (always, either blue cheese crumbles or mozzarella), black olives (always), tomatoes (sometimes), avocado (sometimes), a hardboiled egg (sometimes), edamame (sometimes), and carrots (sometimes) all splashed with red wine vinegar and olive oil, salt and pepper.
And then one day, it was over. Just like that. Actually, it was two days in a row. I just couldn't swallow the salad one more time.
But a girl's got to eat. Bringing my lunch to work became a whole new challenge. It's hard to keep it yummy, affordable and portable.
I may have hit the jackpot, though, with this winning comibination: a warm salad with potatoes, mushrooms and goat cheese. It all started with an impromptu trip the farmer's market near the Natural History Museum. Inspired, I bought a nice head of lettuce and fresh chevre from Ardith Mae in Pennsylvania (ardithmae.com). I picked up some mushrooms and at home I already had some waxy new potatoes and a red onion. I quartered and sauteed the mushrooms in olive oil and butter. I boiled then sliced the potatoes. I dressed both the mushrooms and the potatoes along with some finely chopped red onion in a dijon-y vinaigrette. In a separate bag, I brought the lettuce to work washed, ripped and ready to go. I zapped the vinaigrette mixture for a minute and thirty seconds. I slowly incorporated in the lettuce so as to not splash my outfit. I enjoyed, and I recommend.
