I know the whole point of getting take-out is you don’t have to do any work. It’s supposed to be a hassle free meal, right? Maybe that’s true if you aren’t OCD like I am. Every time I look at a menu item all I can think of is how I’d change it to make it better. Please tell me I’m not alone in this?
Same thing happened today when I got take-out from Golden Mean. I’ve blogged about Golden Mean before (they are literally across the street from our apartment).
I decided on the “When in Rome” salad. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why it’s named that. Please someone tell me what Rome has to do with this salad’s ingredients.
It came like this. With romaine hearts, red and yellow cherry tomatoes pumpkin seeds, sweet potato cornbread croutons, and creamy hemp Caesar dressing.
The hemp Caesar dressing was definitely the oomph that made this salad more than just lettuce and tomatoes.
And still, I thought it needed more. So I added avocado.
Half a fatty avo, to be exact.
And seitan. Lots of seitan.
Then I drizzled on the dressing. It had a serious kick to it. I generally like hemp based dressings, but this one was pretty potent. I only used one of the two containers they gave me. I saved the other one to use later though.
As I was eating it, I still found there to be a bit too much lettuce in the salad (even with my own seitan and avocado additions). Not the best ratio (kinda funny considering the restaurant’s name is based on the “perfect ratio”) and I’m pretty serious about my salad ratios. In my opinion, lettuce should be less than 50% of the ingredient list. Thoughts?
Aside from the dressing, the other “when in Rose” salad component worth mentioning is the sweet potato cornbread crouton. Unfortunately, they were scarce (look in the first photo, I swear there were five total), but when I got one it was a treat for my taste buds. So so dense and absolutely delicious. I could have eaten a tub of them on the side. Maybe I’ll ask for extras a la mode next time.
How often do you tweak take out orders? Or any order from the menu at a restaurant.
Maybe it’s named that for the dressing? You see, there was this guy in Rome named Caesar… 😉 Adding avocado and seitan to anything sounds like a great idea. At the famer’s market today, there were samples of avocado-mmmm, so good!
hahaha. i just cracked up. i’m seriously so dense. Caesar = Rome. got it. i swear i graduated high school and college.
I so rarely go out to eat or even get takeout. All I see is dollar signs when I look at the food and b/c I do tweak it TONS, it’s like, I could have just made this on my own, from start to finish, for cheaper, better, and with less hassle than trying to explain/tweak my order. haha! So that’s why I cook 99.999% of everything we eat. 🙂
Generally, I rarely order salads at restaurants because I find they tend to load up on the lettuce and skimp on everything else. I’d rather just make it at home.
I completely agree with you about the lettuce taking up too much room in salads. When I get a salad from Whole Foods, I usually just put a tiny bit of lettuce in there. So I can call it a salad.
I became a pro at take-out tweaking in college. For example, one of our favorite campus joints offered a black bean burger. Tasty, right? Well, I would usually swap out the ginormous white bun for whole wheat bread. Remove the ranch dressing, add tomato and lettuce, then add my own nuts to the side salad:)
I agree on the lettuce! It should be a base for a good salad, it doesn’t constitute a good salad!
Though it has the hemp caesar dressing I assure you sweet potato cornbread croutons do not exist in Rome. Yes, I have only been there once. But I’d bet money on it. At least 10 euros 🙂
I’m with you on the lettuce ratio. And I am probably the most hated American in Madrid simply based on my menu changes. Every.single.time.
when in Rome (aine)?
I am always trying to piece together the “perfect meal” at restaurants, too. to my last salad, I supplied the bread, the tofu and the dressing! Which is why I don’t eat out anywhere near as often as I used to. If I’m already paying $7+ for basically some dinky lettuce, why should I have to add anything? lol.
Anyways. The hemp caesar dressing sounds – and looks – awesome!
I always try to “upgrade” my takeaway meals – it is just more fun and more tasty! But I don´t eat takeaways too often..I like to prepare my own meals 🙂
hahaha. yes! i love it.
ditto. thats why i rarely do it but sometimes its just kinda nice to be laaaazy
i completely agree. its so hard to part with my hard earned cash when im going to do so much work to make it “right” anyway…
Yup, your version looks 10x better. Maybe they called it “When in Rome” because of the ROME-aine lettuce? Pretty weak.
And maybe if I didn’t live in the suburbs, we’d have takeout places for me to take-out and fix-up, but we don’t. Sad day.