Salads

My quest for a solidly good, problem-free restaurant salad continues. I have been continuously disappointed, either extremely or slightly, with almost every restaurant salad I have ever had. I mean, how hard is it really to make a salad with fresh, WASHED (wow, what a concept!), tasty, NOT WILTED lettuce or salad greens. Honestly. Also, I need to get back into the smart and healthy habit of ordering dressing on the side. Restaurants reliably drown an otherwise potentially good salad with dressing. And, alternatively, when I put the dressing on myself at a restaurant, I put about half to three-quarters of the amount they give me. There is one salad that has never really disappointed me, often impressed me actually: the Point Grey Cobb Salad from Point Grey Golf & Country Club. Crunchy iceberg lettuce (something restaurants do not use enough...or ever),sliced tomatoes, chunks of blue cheese, shrimp, egg, avocado, and crunchy bacon. With a unique buttermilk something or other dressing. Nice stuff. I had a salad at Earl's the other day which was very unique and healthy, and enjoyable, but again, there were a couple pieces of lettuce that tasted "dirty" and as usual, the last pieces of salad greens were kind of soppy and gross. But the unique ingredients were: strawberries, feta, and quinoa. The latter is a revelation, but is so expensive at the grocery store. I guess I have to go all the way to Peru to get a decent price for it. It is a labour-intensive crop, so to an extent I understand the price. Then, today, at St. Augustine's on the Drive, I got the Chop Chop Salad, which was supposed to have bacon in it, but I'm pretty sure it didn't. Anyways, it was great at first, but then again as usual, the greens were soppy and over-dressed. Blue cheese, craisins, and candied pecans are a lovely dance on the palate. The sliced grape tomatoes were too cold though; they hurt my teeth! Plus, after munching on heirloom tomatoes during the late summer from Klipper's Organics, I realized that the majority of tomatoes served at restaurants and from places like Safeway, are well, the worst.
The search for a good restaurant salad continues.
P.S: Apparently eating yogurt is a good option for those who are lactose-intolerant. Thus, I have bought and have been eating Activia Fibre yogurt since yesterday. Here's to getting regular again! TMI? Deal with it.