Tossing is out, chopping is in. We're talking chopped salads - the craze that has stormed the lunchtime scene from London to LA to mid-town New York. The original is probably the old-school cobb salad - a mix of chopped iceberg, romaine, avocado, blue cheese, chicken, chives, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes and bacon, all bound in a dressing - but now anything goes.
One enthusiast is Josh Emett who claims: "It's what I love to eat when I'm in the US or UK - a decent chopped salad is a thing of beauty. It's different from a tossed salad, every mouthful is a flavour explosion."
Emett's new menu of chopped salads can be found at Ostro's City Terrace Bar in Britomart and in it you'll find wicked combinations such as iceberg with carrot, almond, sultanas, pumpkin seeds, golden raisins, cucumber and shaved coconut in a honey-mustard vinaigrette and good friends egg, farmhouse cheese, walnuts, pecans, avocado, green beans, broccoli, cornichons and croutons are combined with a ranch dressing. All chopped, of course. Add tiger prawns, chicken or Akaroa salmon for your complete meal.
And what makes chopped salads so popular? It's all about ease of eating and flavour distribution; enthusiasts love that ingredients are chopped to roughly the same size so every mouthful contains a bit of everything.
• Wooden bread board, $149, from Romantique,
ph (09) 520 2087, romantique.co.nz.
