Is there a good Salad place in Cebu?

[KE-25]

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Mam, been very busy lately, hopefully I can join in your dinner outs one of these days

[aleyson]

so how was gustavian's? isn't it pricy there? huhu can't afford na...hehehe

[st@rr]

La Maison's salads are quite good too

[aleyson]

haven't been there yet...they got a lot of vegetarian food there?
i have to go back and be vegetarian again. all this meat isn't working for my body...huhu

[ic3s]

salad dressing?

[insik24]

I guess the reason why salads are not so popular in cebu is because of the fact that there is not enough supply of ingredients. Salads always depend on the freshness of the ingredients and dressing are only there to enhance the flavor of these ingredients. Since Cebu is an island, we don't have much supply of really good fresh ingredients. If ever there are, they are really expensive. Unlike in Manila, they have access to baguio and the mt province where these ingredients grow really well.

Try to imagine a salad with iceberg lettuce, strawberries, roasted cherry tomatoes, marble potatoes and a little olive oil and salt and you have a perfect balance of sweet, salty and sour...plus the crunchy texture of the lettuce, softness of strawberries, juiciness of the roasted tomatoes and the starchy fullness of the potatoes. But, ingredients have to be very fresh! here in cebu, we have iceberg lettuce, strawberries are 1000 a kilo (the guaranteed sweet ones), cherry tomatoes are sour and usually bruised and marble potatoes are soggy. So a simple recipe like this will be a disaster when made in cebu.

Too bad lng that we can't have access to ingredients that are really..REALLY fresh. So what's a good salad place in Cebu? It's the place that has the BEST DRESSING...to mask the unwanted flavors of the not so fresh ingredients

Hehehe just sharing a thought

[KE-25]

Great view Ins on ingredients being a negative. I remember mom telling me you spend a whole day looking for ingredients to make a good salad, that if you find it. Another challenge is if you can find it in one place, she hated jumping from Rustans to Tinderbox to wherever to complete the dish. So yes, one of the trials we go through is finding good, fresh ingriedients in Cebu. Food for thought as an alternative could be growing your own like Tagaytay, I may not have an answer to Strawberries since im not familiar with growing it other than it needs a cold place but once upon a time we grew our own greens in BABAG, its further up Busay and the climate there is quite cool. I remember we used to grow awesome Icebergs and Romaine lettuce w/c is the original lettuce ingredient to Caesar salad ( used to make them up there with yolk,mustard, lemon and olive dressing ), all kinds of fresh tomatoes, we even had big ones the size of a fist that was great with Burgers, it was as big as the pattie, different herbs grew there, but still the lack for salad components in cebu is felt, these need to grow and stay fresh when brought to restaurants and there arent many here that mass produce these. Hey maybe openning one by farm aint a bad idea, coupled with rooms, good dining area and great people could be a recipe for good eats bon appetite

Aleyson, Gustavian was okay, id have to say it was better than most ive been too, but for the price id rather make my own.

Been quite busy lately...when i get a chance ill place new restaurants in here that serve better than usual salads. Suprisingly I enjoyed the salad in CPK (mla), not gourmet but if ever you guys have a chance to go, taste the Thai Crunch salad its good.

Till then good eating everyone ....

[Gwynhuever]

..i am a salad person as well...i have started a small garden....i am happy to say i have a few big pomodoro seedlings na...he he he...big juicy italian tomatoes...wala pa ko nag harvest but nanubo na jud tawn...maybe in a few weeks i can give updates ....nalimot lang jud ko hatag seeds ni insik when i met him during the EB....ni sprout na sad ako mesclun...wait and see pa lang ko if it will be as good as i expected....

i do not like commercial dressings....i prefer to make my own simple concoction....mainly olive oil lang and balsamic vinegar...a dash of italian seasoning...pinch of salt ...garlic....na daug na!

[aleyson]

ka nice anang mag himo kag small garden oy...unfortunately wa gyud ko space for that.
interested sad baya ko mag vegetable garden using hydrophonics but got no time for it yet.

[KE-25]

Yup you do need space and time for these lovely vegetables

Insik, I had a nice conversation with mom a few minutes ago, and we talked about comments here. She said there are growers in Cebu but one problem is they dont know how to pack them to keep freshness, in fact supermarkets return a lot of unused wilted vegetables. So you have skeptical growers, we dont get support from big supermarkets to help or invest in a way to stock these things, and some restaurants may not see salads as an important part of the meal, thus decreasing market for vegetables (note: not all vegetables but delicate ones for salads). Good example the movie Rattatouie, member that part where the lady chef thought this guy tricks of the trade, one of which restaurants pay a bit of money to get the good catch of the day, or guarantee getting the freshiest vegetables, I dont see that kind of urgency, other than maybe 1 or 2 major hotels. These are our thoughtsm (keeping theme of salads)