Toppings Galore

As I start to experiment with this blog and figure out just what the point of it all will be, I’ve decided to dedicate the Thursday post to restaurant/ food reviews. Just accept it as the next step toward fulfilling my aspirations of becoming a food critic. And besides, I think Tom Sietsema does his reviews on Thursday. I want to be just like Tom.

Today, since you have had to wait so long for the re-birth of this blog, I give you my dear reader not one, but TWO restaurant reviews!

Today’s theme: it’s all about the toppings.

The Whole Foods Salad Bar
1440 P Street NW
www.wholefoodsmarket.com

To the casual observer, the Whole Foods Salad Bar appears to be a mecca of healthy living. And it is. The freshest vegetables are beautifully laid out in vivid greens, yellows, and oranges. The lettuce is crisp and diverse – you can choose from spinach, baby greens, and romaine and top your salad with anything from cherry tomatoes and sliced chicken to noodle salad, roasted beets, and mandarin oranges. The reason why I love salad bars so much is because I hate lettuce. To me, the lettuce is a waste of space. With little to no flavor, it just gets in the way of a zesty artichoke heart or tangled up with a buttery chickpea. I’d rather fill my cardboard box with the toppings.

Whole Foods gives you a few container options. They tout their rectangular paper boxes because naturally they are recycled and earth friendly. They come in two sizes. They also offer round plastic containers. On both recent occasions that I visited the Whole Foods Salad Bar, I opted for the smaller, rectangular paper box option – which measure 4” l x 3” w x 2” d. That is 24 square inches space to fill. The good news is: the salad bar is already open for business at 8:30am when I walk by on my way to work. That means I can load up a healthy salad and save it for lunch. The bad news is that at $7.99/ pound, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford the larger container, nor make it a daily staple of my diet.

Today, my 24 square inches turned out to cost $7.49 (should have left out the lettuce, see?) – it is more than I would typically like to spend on lunch, but, I did fill it with sliced chicken, red pepper, roasted beets, corn, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, peas, raisins and mandarin oranges – topped with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and it really was a treat. Certainly better than any salad bar that I have within walking distance of my office (Park Place Gourmet and Sizzling Express to name a few) and it should be enough to keep me going until 5pm. We’ll see.

*** (out of 4)
20% tip: do not let the weight of your salad exceed the weight of your wallet.


M’Dawg Haute Dogs
2418 18th Street NW
http://m-dawg.com/index.html

When I found out that this spin-off of Amsterdam Falafel was opening just across the street from the pita paradise that I adore, I could not get there fast enough. Literally. My husband I ran there last night. And mind you, I do not run. But we did. We went for a run through Adams Morgan and the only thing that kept me going was that on the way back I could dress my hot dog up with yummy toppings.

We got there around 7pm and it was fairly empty, which gave us a great view of the toppings bar and the chalkboard with our “instructions.” First you pick a bun. Nothing fancy here, just potato, poppy or wheat. Then on to the dogs. 13 to choose from! Options range from the Split Beefer (described as a NJ Ripper and deep fried till it splits. I wasn’t sure what would actually rip if I ate this one, so I stayed away), the Oy Vey (it’s Hebrew National!), the Brokeback (a corndog), the Kobe (beef) Bryant for $20!, and of course a veggie dog. I overheard the cashier say that his absolute favorite was the #9 – the French Made (“andouille to tickle your sausage fancy with just enough spice” per the menu not my own overt sexual references). He also said that he ate it every day for 3 weeks. I thought that was scary. I selected the tried and true Hebrew National to allow the full flavor of the toppings to come through. Hot dog prices range from $4 to $5.36 not including the hefty Kobe beef dog. And for an additional $1, you can load up your hot dog with all the toppings you’d like.

Now on to the yummy goodness that is the reason I salivated up and down 18th Street – the toppings. They offer the standard ketchup, mustard, onions etc. for free for those that don’t want to experiment with the endless permutations of the toppings bar, but seriously if you come here for that, you are better off economically with the street vendor. On the gourmet side of things, you can dress your dog with several types of slaw, carmelized onions, corn relish, apricot chutney, blue cheese, bacon crumbles and more. They have so many options that you have no option but to return again and again until you try everything. I chose to dress my Hebrew National on a potato roll with small bite size selections of chili and cheese, baked beans, garlic mushrooms, carmelized onions, and cole slaw. Call it the tapas of hot dogs. It was delicious.

***1/2 (out of 4 and solely based on the novelty factor)
20% tip: go hungry and order more than one hot dog so that you can try a large range of toppings.