Not so much a recipe but a suggestion. My friend Toby and I work
near the Hilton Hotel at London Bridge. They have a salad bar which offers
either 6 toppings (plus leaves) or pasta with 5 toppings (plus leaves).
I think you have to have pasta to bulk it out and it is
tricky to pick just 5 toppings as they have so many – roast duck, chorizo,
chick peas, jalapenos, sausage, croutons, feta cheese, sundried tomatoes,
capers, aubergines, grated carrot, courgettes, boiled eggs – it goes on.
A friend of ours once spent an afternoon calculating how
many combinations of salad you could have, given your 6 choices. I can’t
remember, but it would take us years to try every permutation. I have hit on my
ideal combination – it still lies in the hands of the servers though as the
exact ratio of ingredients you get varies every day:
Pasta – it’s always Penne, no choice there
Leaves – these are free – I go for spinach
Fresh tomatoes
Green olives
Beetroot (cooked and sliced)
Cucumber
Red onion
There’s a choice of dressing but Olive Oil & Balsamic it
must be.
The beetroot is a substitute for roast duck as I’m trying
not to mix protein & carbs during the day. It’s sweetness works well with
the spinach and pasta. The tomatoes add freshness and the cucumber brings
crunch. The olives and onion bring sharpness (I do have breath mints). And the
balsamic dressing compliments the sweetness of the beetroot.
I could eat this every day (and sometimes do). They have a
loyalty scheme in which every 9th salad is free. I’m probably getting
far too many free lunches. Toby’s version has a double portion of broccoli when
he’s feeling virtuous or both sausage and chicken when he isn’t
Other pros – we pass a branch of a coffee/sandwich shop on
the way that used to employ a guy called David that I took a liking to. We only
knew his name because of his name badge. We knew nothing about him but spun an
elaborate fiction about his life. He eventually became a Romanian whose name
was pronounced Daveed. My one interaction with him was buying a can of Coke –
he sounded as if he came from Southend.
He doesn’t work there anymore.
The only drawback is that it’s really close to the office so
we have a very short time for those “off the premises” conversations.
No comments:
Post a Comment