I've been on a Cobb salad kick lately. I don't eat it every day, but when I inevitably crave one it's the Cobb salad that I fall back on. I'm generally not a big salad eater for the reason that I'm hungry soon after eating one. It just doesn't satisfy me. Cobb salads, though, are heartier, and I think that's why I favor them.
As way of history, the Cobb salad was invented by the Brown Derby, a location of which used to stand a few blocks from my apartment. The legend follows:
from Aurthur Schwartz of the food maven
"One night in 1937, Bob Cobb, then owner of The Brown Derby, prowled hungrily in his restaurant's kitchen for a snack. Opening the huge refrigerator, he pulled out this and that: a head of lettuce, an avocado, some romaine, watercress, tomatoes, some cold breast of chicken, a hard-boiled egg, chives, cheese and some old-fashioned French dressing. He started chopping. Added some crisp bacon -- swiped from a busy chef.
"The Cobb salad was born. It was so good, Sid Grauman (Grauman's Chinese Theatre), who was with Cobb that midnight, asked the next day for a 'Cobb Salad.' It was so good that it was put on the menu.
"Cobb's midnight invention became an overnight sensation with Derby customers, people like movie mogul Jack Warner, who regularly dispatched his chauffeur to pick up a carton of the mouth-watering salad."
I'm not enough of an expert to say which place has the best Cobb salad, but the one I had at the Nickel Diner recently was very good. Today I'm having Mendocino Farms' take on the Cobb. It's not a traditional Cobb salad in its ingredients (turkey instead of chicken, no hard-boiled eggs) and its presentation (too messy), but it makes up for it with great, fresh ingredients. I miss the eggs, but otherwise this is quite a delicious salad--and surprisingly, I'm feeling full.
2 comments:
You've inspired me to branch out and embrace the Cobb. I'm going to give the Starry Kitchen cobb a try this week.
I've had their Cobb salad, and it's obviously non-traditional. I don't know if it's the bacon or the lemongrass chicken or both, but it was too salty. It also didn't have the crispness from the greens and bacon that I like from a Cobb salad. I love Starry Kitchen, but I was disappointed with their Thai Cobb (get it TY COBB).
Post a Comment