Mar 16: Lunch at the Deli; Cobb Salad

Lunch

Today was a very atypical day for the semiSerious Foodies: up early so Philip could take the Oath of Allegiance and become an American Citizen. So we joined with a friend who took us out to lunch at the Country Deli in Chatsworth.

The serving sizes are very generous: whether you have the marinated skirt steak with eggs and home fries, or the Texas omelette it’s hard to finish the serve.

While technically we didn’t pay for anything, it’s about $18 on average with tax and tip.

Dinner

In order to celebrate the new Citizenship, we had that most American of salads: Cobb. A Cobb Salad is almost entirely preparation as the only cooking required is to boil the eggs and fry off the bacon.

It also leaves the ingredients themselves as the star. When there’s no fancy sauces, spices or flavoring – other than a mild dressing on the green leaves – each ingredient has to be superb. By choosing carefully, the basic Cobb can be elevated into a gourmet experience.

  • Blue cheese crumbles are $3.49 for the pack and we used about 1/3 or 58c per serve.
  • You can tell by the deep gold yolk that these are pastured eggs: 50c each -one per serve – but worth it for the taste.
  • The avocado is direct from a friend’s tree: a Fuerte instead of the more common Haas. I don’t know if it’s the breed, or the freshness, but this avocado was creamy and full of flavor. Normally about 50c per serve.
  • Organic bacon is $8.99 for the pack, but it’s only two slices per serve, or $1.13 per serve.
  • The cooked roast chicken was $7.99 but one quarter was used, or $1.00 per serve.
  • The organic cherry tomatoes were $2.49 for the pack or $1.25 per serve.
  • Add 10c for the greens.

Dinner tonight was an example of how great a simple dish can be, when the ingredients are excellent. All up it cost $5.06 and was better than any Cobb Salad we’ve had in a restaurant. And never chop a Cobb Salad. That would be a crime against texture and flavor!

 

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