It ends with a single forkfull

"Over the next X days and weeks my sweet lady Margaret will be eating and reviewing every salad available for lunch at Chicago's Merchandise Mart. Rough estimate is somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 salads so we better get snacking. Why no review today? I'm having a last meal. McD Surf and Turf (Big Mac and Filet O'Fish) with an iced tea." - May 2007

The world was a different place then. Anna Nichol was still alive and Bush was still in the White House. We were so young weren't we? God you had a great butt. Who'da thought we'd find ourselves all grown up so soon. Pass on what you've learned and enjoy retirement - the salad days.


Loyal readers or as I know you call yourselves "Lettuceheads"

Please join us a week from today (Dec 14th) at 1:00pm in front of the Potbelly's in the Merchandise Mart to celebrate the "winning" salad THE CHICKEN SALAD SALAD.

Everyone who joins us for lunch that day will be eligible to be in THE WORLDS LARGEST SALAD BLOG READERSHIP FULL-COLOR GROUP PHOTO EVER. And that's salad history folks. Hope to see you there.

Starbucks Vegetable Vinaigrette Salad

Margaret: I think Starbucks salads are actually pretty good. When you've been around the salad world like I have, you can start to see how everything is going to go before you even open up the package. Today's salad sounded fine until I got to the word "mint". Yeesh. Is it me? Mint in my salad? I suppose its not THAT odd, but mint and feta? Mint and carrot? Mint and pepper? Mint and me? No. As far as I'm concerned mint is for two things, mint chocolate chip milkshakes and Frango's. And peppermint patties. Okay, mint and chocolate. I really did like the "Champagne vinagrette", I thought that was delicious. The veggies were fresh, the carrots tasted like carrots (and mint), the cukes tasted like cukes (and mint) and the red pepper tasted like red pepper (and mint). And again, the package is deceiving, it looks like a small salad, but its really not, there's a lot packed in those little bowls. So, I'll give this one a C, if there was no mint, I would have given it a B probably, but if you like mint with your veggies, you are strange, but you will also like this one. C.

John: This is more like veggies in a box than it is a salad. I liked how fresh everything was and the cham vin was great. My big problem with this one was the "base" of the salad. The box said "minted bulger" which I read as "Tabouli" or thereabouts. It really was just "minted bulger" in there. Its like they tried to cheap out on the other Tabouli ingredients and hope nobody noticed. The flavor was just too singular and strong to enjoy. For me this was another half/half salad. Half good - half processed and corporate tasting. For $5.25 you can do better folks. C- (would have been an A- with Tabouli)

Tokyo Lunchbox Sashimi Salad

Margaret: Well, I'll admit that John and I went back and forth for a minute regarding whether I had to eat this salad. I really don't like sushi. I don't like fish anyway, so raw fish products are not my thing. It's the one thing I'm pretty staunch about not trying, the few times I have tried sushi it tastes like salty assfish. So...we went back and forth a bit, but this is OUR salad blog, and there can't be a salad that just one of us tries, so...I tried it. Lo and behold it tasted like salty assfish on lettuce. I had a whole huge mouthful, with a little bit of everything on it, the most honest mouthful I could have, and I was pretty close to spitting it out. The first thought that went through my head is when the lunch lady on Survivor had to eat those just underdone birds a few weeks ago. I held the salty assfish in my mouth, tried my best to be open minded, and then shoved the entire mouthful down with the biggest swig of Diet Coke anyone has ever had. So, needless to say, this salad was disgusting. F. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

John: Now Johnny likes nothing more than a good Japanese Tuna Salad that takes the flavors of my favorite items and gives them to me in a new form. I'll let you know when I find one. I, like many of you, am a sashimi/maki addict - if there was a spicy tuna faucet I'd put my lips right on it and gulp. I have never been so excited about a salad going in and so very very disappointed in the end. This was bad bad bad. Warm sushi rice, frozen lettuce and tuna, a busted up crab stick and finally what seemed like spicy ketchup all for $11. This is easily the worst salad in the mart while also being the most expensive. Tokyo Lunch Box - for breaking my heart you receive the ultimate shame - an F-. Yup. It hurts me too but this is tough love.

Chicago Pita Grilled Chicken Salad

Sorry about the delay. Somebody got her camera stolen in Vegas.

Margaret: This is by far one of the best salads at the Mart, if not the best. Seriously, I'm not messing around. I stopped smoking a week ago and there is no room for messing around in my life anymore. So you know that what I say today is the absolute goldarn truth, because my capacity for blowing smoke (or sucking it) is now gone. And this salad, is delicious. The chicken is so good. And its even warm, which in previous salads has made me hurl. But this chicken is so good, its real chicken, its warm, its delicious and there is plenty of it. There were also some fresh cukes, mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes...and a yummy creamy italian sauce. This is the kind of salad you could eat for a meal and not be starving or feeling unsatisfied after, its a real meal. And once again, the service is great. I love this salad. A+

John: Going out with a bang! Only two more salads left and I was starting to wonder if anybody else was going to hit the top 5. Well, REAL FOOD is a great way to do it. This was a really good honest salad. Best way to describe it. If the pitas were hot this would be an A+. Instead it just gets and A. YAY GREEKS!