salad Archives - Queen of the Food Age

Verde

June 7, 2013

Ok, so I’ve been pretty busy the past couple of weeks, traveling around the Southeastern US, so I haven’t really had a lot of time to go out and eat at any of the places on my Charleston Restaurant wishlist. I’ve mostly been cooking at home and eating at all of my usual haunts. One place that I frequent at least once a week, is Verde. Verde takes up the space where Bruegger’s Bagels used to be, and is basically a giant salad bar. Now, historically I’ve been very anti-salad–I think people only order salads when they either A. don’t like the taste of real food, or B. are on a diet–but I actually really like Verde.

Lookin’ at you, Lauren.

First of all, the space is really nice. It’s very clean and open, with a white and lime green color scheme which make you think of freshness, health, cleanliness, and nature. You start by ordering at the counter. You can choose to either build your own salad / wrap, or choose from one of the “Signature Creations.” The first thing you notice when you step up to the counter is the wall of lettuce. At least, that’s what I notice. Maybe you notice the 50 some-odd toppings and dressings you have to choose from. Either way.

Behold, the wall of lettuce.

Back to the toppings: Seriously. They have any kind of salad topping you could want. Unless you want something weird, in which case–move back to Seattle, ya Hippie. Laura always chooses to build her own salad, which is never the same twice. You get 4 ingredients included in your salad (while proteins and avocado cost extra, and each additional topping after 4 is an extra $0.50). They also give you a piece of bread with every salad / wrap. Here’s a copy of the menu, so you get an idea.

See what I mean about the green and white?

My favorite salad (obsessed is a good word) is the Mesa Verde (romaine, roasted chicken, grape tomatoes, red onion, avocado, black beans, corn, fresh cilantro, and tortilla strips with chipotle lime vinaigrette, finished with a fresh squeeze of lime). I usually don’t get the corn or tortilla strips (because… gross). I absolutely love their chipotle lime vinaigrette, it is so yummy. And the fresh squeeze of lime at the end just makes everything taste fresh and delicious. I freaking love this salad. I make it at home all the time (but it’s really just easier to let them do it).

I think I like it because it doesn’t actually taste like salad.

You also get the option of getting your salad chopped or tossed. If you get it tossed, they basically stir your salad up and then put it in the bowl. I always get it chopped, which is where they take this medieval torture-looking device (like a double-headed pizza cutter), and attack your salad until it’s mincemeat in a bowl. That’s my favorite part. They charge upwards of like $28 bucks to buy one from them, but if you’re trying to chop a salad at home you can just use a single-blade pizza cutter. It literally works exactly the same way (trust me, I’ve tried).

That second blade is pretty redundant, if you ask me.

Basically, if you’re on King Street and looking for a fast, healthy lunch that tastes as good as it is good for you, I highly recommend you visit Verde. Plus, they have a lot of cool, natural drinks to try, and they offer King of Pops popsicles (which are really good. TRY ONE). Also get their loyalty card–Buy 10 salads / wraps, get your 11th one free (I’m only 3 away!)

I’m kind of craving a salad right now. I feel like I’ve been body snatched.

Verde
347 King Street
Charleston, SC 29401
(843) 579-2884

1 Comments

Restaurant Reviews

Heroes Sports Bar and Grill

April 6, 2012

This past week I had the pleasure of spending a few days on Dauphin Island, Alabama with Lauren. We basically ate nothing, drank beer, and lounged in the sunlight for three glorious days. Toward the end of our trip, when we were hungry, hungover, and sunburnt, we started hallucinating visions of cheeseburgers, and attempted to figure out how to use a grill in order to cook for ourselves. Unfortunately, neither of us have any knowledge of how to use a gas grill, and somehow managed to spray propane on the porch, which I’m pretty sure is a fire hazard.

Appendix A: What I was convinced was going to happen if I continued my attempt to turn on the grill.

Knowing we would be driving home the following day, we decided we would stop in Mobile to have the burger we’d been craving for a week. Our final night at the beach was spent thinking we were going to die from what I was convinced was a hurricane (but what turned out to be only a thunderstorm), and fighting to find enough cell phone reception to research what restaurants in Mobile (if any) had good cheeseburgers. I was able to stumble onto a blog entry highlighting the 19 Burgers To Eat Before You Die centered around Southern Alabama. Although I appreciate the variety of choices in the blog, I wish he would have just named his favorite and saved me a bunch of work. Since I’m lazy and got frustrated trying to contort my body in ways that would allow me to get cell phone service, I just decided to go with the first burger joint on the list, Heroes Sports Bar & Grill.

I STILL ONLY HAVE ONE BAR. DAMN YOU, VERIZON!

Now I don’t know if it’s because it was overcast, so no one was really walking around downtown, but Mobile seemed kind of creepy when we were driving around. On the walk to the restaurant Lauren and I were picking out what items we could use as weapons, just in case we had unwittingly stumbled into the zombie apocalypse. When we entered Heroes, we were a little unnerved by the fact that it was packed with people. And by “people,” I mean “men…” nary a lady in sight (other than our waitress, that is).

Apparently they’d already eaten all the womenfolk.

After we sat down and perused the menu, Lauren got really excited by the fact that they had fried pickles on the menu. They also had a lot of really good looking appetizers, like spinach and crawfish dip, mexican egg rolls, and waffle cut sweet potato fries. If I’d been with more people, I would have ordered another appetizer to try it, but I know Lauren would never eat any of the appetizers I wanted. We were a little disappointed when the fried pickles turned out to be fried pickle spears instead of pickle chips. They’re just so much harder to eat that way. They stay molten lava hot for about 45 minutes, and the breading falls off when you try to eat it, so you just end up getting third degree burns on your tongue from a pickle.

Try explaining that injury to your mother.

For my meal, I got the Hero Burger with American cheese and bacon. The burgers are served with 2 sides, so I got French Fries (don’t tell Jesus!) and baked beans. The burger was really great. It was thick, and tasted like it just came off of a grill. The only thing I had a problem with was that there was just way too much bread, which kind of took away from the flavor of the beef and overpowered the burger as a whole. But I did like that they supplied a generous helping of toppings (two slices of tomato, onions, lettuce, etc). The bacon was the perfect level of crunchiness. It was a really good burger, but by no means the best I’ve ever had. The fries were crinkle cut (my favorite) and delicious. The beans tasted homemade and were a perfect complement to the burger. Basically, I overindulged and enjoyed every minute of it.

“X” marks the spot where I’m going to start shoveling food into my face.

Lauren got basically the same thing as me, only she (of course) got a salad as her side instead of anything fun or flavorful. The salad looked basically like one of those ready-pack salad mixes with iceberg lettuce and shredded cabbage. They threw on a couple of pieces of vegetables and some croutons to make it seem like something other than rabbit food, but there was really no disguising it (props for trying, though). But, that’s what you get for ordering a salad from a sports bar.