I’m not someone who usually seeks out salads in my daily life, mostly because I fear they won’t be filling enough and, in part, because I think the greens that fuel the salad industrial complex — romaine, little gem, iceberg, subpar arugula — are so, so boring.
But when I’m playing Nikita the Restaurant Writer, I always order a salad. This is usually my last chance to enjoy something “light” before the heaviness of the rest of the meal falls on me like a ton of delicious, buttery bricks. Which brings me to my point: In the course of my recent restaurant outings, I felt moved to declare that the best salads are winter salads.
These depend on chicories, arriving in hues of purple, red, pink, green and yellow, and are dressed to the gods with citrus, vinaigrettes, nuts and any number of accouterments. A winter salad on its worst day is better than any Caesar or wedge on its best. So, I invite you to savor the last of the winter salads while there’s still time — or at least seek out the most interesting salads possible the next time you’re cosplaying a restaurant writer.
Salads should have crunch
The first winter salad that left a lasting impression on me came from the kitchen at Pitt’s, Jeremy Salamon’s three-month-old restaurant in Red Hook. Here, the salad is your last stop on the road to Sleepytown, because the menu is meat-forward and Southern-leaning (fried Saltines and gouda pimento cheese, pork chops, lamb rumps and the world’s best pancake soufflé).
The confetti salad ($17) is a tasty array of purple and yellow-green endive topped with a “confetti” of diced green apples, Cheddar, biting red onions and pickled peppers tossed with a bracing vinaigrette. But the best part is the crunch of the roasted peanuts showered on the salad, a stunning reminder of the power of a toasty legume. It’s everything a salad should be and then some.
Go big on citrus
Another style of winter salad I love combines bright, tangy citrus with those bitter chicories or depends on citrus entirely. I had a lovely, if undersized version of this salad at Lord’s in Greenwich Village, and whenever I need a great one I can always go to Hart’s in Bed-Stuy.
But if you’re a maniac for citrus, there are few salads that bet big on the fruit like the one at Zimmi’s, the tiny Provençal bistro in the West Village. Based on availability, you can expect a mix of Cara Cara, blood orange, tangelos, oroblanco, navel, Meyer lemons and pomelo under a few glugs of good olive oil, mint, olives, capers and white balsamic vinegar. The salad isn’t on the restaurant’s online menu, but I have it on good authority that it’s staying put for at least another month. That and a plate of the restaurant’s superior pommes frites would make for an incredible solo dinner at the bar, but that’s just me!
Return of the hand salad
Speaking of, I spent a recent Saturday evening dining alone at Sunn’s, in the Dimes Square Autonomous Zone. Becky Hughes highlighted the restaurant in a newsletter in January, but I went in with a very specific target in mind: the Sunn’s salad, which multiple food friends have raved about and I simply had to try (along with the chef Sunny Lee’s mind-boggling banchan).
It’s safe to say that there are no salads quite like the Sunn’s salad. It starts at the bottom with a generous swipe of whipped silken tofu made nutty with sesame oil and tahini. That acts as a kind of culinary glue for a ring of Treviso leaves, which form perfect little vessels for thin slices of Asian pear, sweet persimmon, pickled radish and (my favorite part) lotus root. In case your server fails to inform you or it isn’t obvious, this salad is meant to be eaten with your hands — conduct yourself accordingly.
One Reader Question
My husband is reluctantly embracing a gluten-free lifestyle. But his kryptonite is sugar: chocolate chip cookies, cinnamon roll buns, pastries. Where can we find good (actually good) gluten-free sweet treats in the city? — Allie Bogus
Your husband and I have the same weakness because I am always thinking about my next sweet treat. First, I’d recommend the Seven Grams Caffe chain, which makes an especially mean gluten free (and vegan) dark chocolate chip cookie, as well as flourless brownie bites. Then there’s Post Card Bakery in the West Village, where the entire menu is gluten-free and nut-free so he can enjoy everything on the menu — raspberry mochi doughnuts, yuzu sandwich cookies, lemon buns or orange fruit sandos — without worrying about gluten land mines.
Seven Grams Caffe, multiple locations
Postcard Bakery, 31-33 Carmine Street (Bleecker Street)
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