Salata

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The friend I went to Bread Zeppelin with kept comparing the experience to her recent favorite salad bar, Salata. And funnily enough, my grandmother had just been talking about wanting to check it out because there was a fairly new location in her area.

My first impression upon walking in the door was that the colors, branding, and dining room were really beautiful. I felt like if I was to walk in to the same dining room to lunch with some ladies at a Neiman Marcus it wouldn't be out of place at all.

The salad bar itself was impressive. It was extremely expansive. If you look at the photo above, that's not even the whole length of it!

Like most salad bars, you start by selecting your lettuce. The pricing and menu are super simple and clear at the beginning of the line- you pick a salad or a wrap, one price, as many toppings as you want.

While this isn't intended to be a full side-by-side comparison to Bread Zeppelin, I did eat at Salata just a day or two after at the recommendation of the friend I took to Bread Zeppelin, so comparisons are unavoidable. 

A few differences in particular struck me most. First, the number of options at Salata is unbelievable. The thing is, the prices at Salata and Bread Zeppelin are comparable. So it makes me wonder how it's possible for Salata to be able to afford to have such a variety of ultra fresh ingredients available, and have no limits on how many you can put in your salad for the same price, and not have at least unlimited toppings at Bread Zeppelin since they have significantly fewer toppings to keep stocked.

The other big difference between Salata and Bread Zeppelin is the amount of protein added to your salad or wrap. Like Bread Zeppelin, Salata does charge extra for meat, but the price is lower and the amount of meat is much greater.

Additionally, the meats are seasoned so that you can create a flavor profile and really feel like you're eating an assembled meal, not just a salad or wrap.

They also allowed me to taste as many proteins as I wanted before I selected the Thai flavored chicken. I tasted several and they were all really good- they are served cold, though, so expect that. There are also several more options as far as salmon and crab, which makes it kind of special and makes me feel like I could eat there really frequently and still enjoy a genuinely varied diet.

At Salata, you actually select your dressing before you select your protein, so it may take a few trips to learn the proteins to expect before you know the best dressings to pick.

However, the variety is noteworthy and the flavors are outstanding. After tasting several impressive and unique salad dressings, I eventually landed on the ginger lime vinaigrette, which inspired me to trend my wrap towards an Asian flavor theme. I am not exaggerating when I say I have plans to go back soon and find out if I can purchase the Ginger Lime Vinaigrette in bulk to keep at home.

After selecting the proteins, there are still nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, again at no additional charge.

Salata offers 3 soup options. I tasted a sample of the broccoli soup and found it tasty but more healthy tasting than say a super creamy or cheesy broccoli soup. This is nice because it would still be good to eat but wouldn't make you feel like you just un-did the virtue of your salad.

The final choice you have to make if you get a wrap is which kind of tortilla you'll get. I was sincerely impressed with the options available, as I have never seen 4 of the 5 options before. I selected the Thai Ginger Tortilla to go with my Asian themed wrap, and I'll jump ahead a little to say that it was AMAZING. The tortilla had such a subtle almost fragrance of spices and ginger, the flavor enveloped the acid and brightness of the fillings both literally and as I chewed.

You also get to select a roll as a side. I opted for the cheesy bread.

In lieu of a soda fountain, Salata features a "Tea Tap" with several original lemonades and iced teas. I took the opportunity to sample every one of them, and found that all of the limeades and lemonades were really excellent, and all but one of the teas were great. The one tea that wasn't my favorite tasted like it might've been in the tap too long, & I told an employee who immediately changed it out.

All in all, the Tea Tap is a beautiful fixture, a clever idea, and worth tasting all of them to find your personal favorite.

I know you're dying to see the final product of my wrap, so here it is:

I got the following fillings on mine: spring mix, pickled beets, jicama, green apple, avocado, sunflower seeds, asian chicken, ginger lime vinaigrette, almonds, and shredded cheese on a thai ginger tortilla. It was outstanding. I can not sing this wrap's praises enough. It was hearty, satiating, satisfying, delicious, and full to the brim with well cooked, seasoned chicken.

My grandmother tried the salad, and she put together a salad full of mostly fruit, with a lemon dressing:

She ate every bite! I'll also mention that while the dining room was pretty full, the ambient noise was at a  pleasant, unimposing level. This always gets an extra plus from me, because I do eat out so often with people who have hearing aids, and I've become rather sensitive to whether a restaurant seems to have accounted for acoustics.

I 100% recommend that you go try Salata! It will inspire you to eat well, be healthy, and you will feel FULL. If you are like me and you struggle sometimes to start a healthier eating routine because every time you start you just find yourself feeling so crazy hungry, I suggest you try starting your new diet at Salata. You could eat there 20 days in a row and never eat the same thing twice, and you will feel truly satiated without being naughty.

Green Waffles

Growing up, my mom cooked most of our meals, and she is a fabulous cook- truly inspired my passion for good food. But most Saturday mornings were my dad's time in the kitchen. His specialty was breakfast, especially when my sisters or I had sleepovers. When we had sleepovers, often we would fit three or four of us onto the hide-a-bed from the living room couch and we would reluctantly wake up to the sounds and smells of my dad cooking in the adjoining kitchen. Then he would give us one final startling wake-up call by pretending to fold is into a "taco" in the couch. When we finally got up to eat, we were always delighted to see what color the pancakes or waffles would be, because every time my dad made pancakes or waffles, he would add food coloring to make it fun.

So when my parents invited my husband and I over for dinner the other night, and I realized when I got there that my dad had kicked my mom out of the kitchen and was cooking us up a hearty breakfast for dinner, I naturally asked him what color the waffles would be. For me, my dad's colored waffles are as much of a tradition as how we celebrate Christmas. When my dad served us our spearmint-green waffles, I was excited to initiate my husband into the tradition, and I not-so-secretly hope he'll carry on the tradition for our kids someday.

I don't want you to think my dad is a one-trick pony, though- he also made perfectly crisp sausage and the fluffiest cloud of scrambled eggs you could imagine. My mom has taught me a lot about cooking, but my dad taught me how to scramble eggs. The trick is to add a slurp of milk to the eggs before you beat the everloving tar out of them.

What food traditions did you grow up in? Will you pass them on to your own kids? Let me know in the comments!

Coppell deli

Check out Coppell Deli's Website                                                             See Location

Remember when the original Big Tex burned down? For some of you native Dallasites, you may be able to relate to me when I say that when I got the news, it felt oddly like a beloved old uncle had died. This may have been because Big Tex actually looked like my great uncle Norton, but I probably knew Big Tex better than I ever knew Norton.

While I was pleased that they rebuilt Big Tex, I was dismayed to find they thought they should update him. It felt like putting the Statue of David in a business suit. You don't mess with traditional Texas institutions, dadgummit! And they didn't just update his clothes- THEY CHANGED HIS FACE!!! But what does this have to do with food?

My hometown is Coppell, TX. I grew up going to the original Coppell Deli in Old Coppell, and I can give it full credit for my affinity for clean but humble dining establishments that serve top-notch food, especially those that require a little local inside knowledge to learn about. Even when the Coppell Deli became better known and added a more modern, fancy location on the other side of town with the same menu but more sports-bar ambiance than greasy spoon, I always preferred the original. I appreciate the classic, historical permanence of some of the longstanding establishments in Old Coppell so much that I long dreamed of opening my own bakery across the street from the Coppell Deli. So when Old Coppell started undergoing major updates, and I learned that Coppell Deli would be following suit, demolishing their original location and rebuilding to keep up with the growth in the area, I was nervous. It was kind of like Big Tex burning down all over again. Would they sell out? Build another Deliman's Grill to compete with the Twisted Root coming in a block over? Lose the stripped-down-to-just-outstanding-food quality that made it the institution that it is?

The old Coppell Deli

Well I have good news. The Coppell Deli certainly got some updates, but they didn't change it's face. I don't know what marketer/architect/owner combination collaborated to achieve the balance of decor and atmosphere in the new Coppell Deli, but it carries every bit of the same humility, it's-about-good-food-at-the-end-of-the-day attitude, and lack of suburban pretense that the old place had, while adding some genuine improvements. There is now a patio, additional seating, a small bar, and they have added a few menu options that had at some point in the past only been available at the Deliman's Grill location.

The new Coppell Deli

I'm pleased to say food at Coppell Deli is as good as ever. If you've never been there, and you're in the area, I strongly suggest you remedy that ASAP. The burgers at Coppell Deli are legendary, and I have successfully convinced several out-of-towners that theirs are literally the best burgers in the state, and a contender for the best burgers in the country. On my first visit back to the new location, however, I was excited to try one of the newer items on the menu, the gyro, and a side of hummus. I won't speculate on the Mediterranean authenticity of the Coppell Deli hummus, but I will say that it's some of the best hummus I've ever had. It's extremely garlicky, however, so if you'll be kissing someone later that day, you'd better split the hummus with them. The gyro meat is perfectly seasoned, and they sear it on the flattop after slicing it off the rotisserie so that it's a little crispy, like the best burnt-ends of a great barbecue brisket. 

My grandmother (my regular eating companion) is usually most likely to order a giant cheeseburger, but she decided on this trip to try the Coppell Deli's Reuben sandwich. The only complaint we had was that it was so fresh and so fast that the sandwich was too hot to touch or eat for about 5 minutes. That's the kind of complaint I wish I had more often. My grandmother also partook in the famous Coppell Deli tater tots, which, though by nature are a greasy food, somehow aren't nearly as greasy and are much crispier than the tater tots at, say, Sonic. I think it has something to do with their frying oil being at a perfect temperature, sealing the tots instantly so that they don't soak in extra grease.

I may have to do another review someday of their breakfast menu, which may really be what the Coppell Deli is most famous for. Their breakfast sandwiches are colossal and outstanding, with high quality sausage, hearty portions of bacon and egg, and thick Texas toast.

All in all, the new building has all the charm of the old place, and all the added amenities of a rebuild. I don't feel like the nostalgia of my childhood was destroyed with its update, and I know that I'll bring many more out-of-towners and new Dallasites there to initiate them, welcome them, and show them why we Texans are so proud of where we come from.