Say 'Salud' before your salad main course

While TikTokers all over the world are going gaga over "baked salad" or the recipes shared by the "the green goddess of salad", Dhaka is slowly embracing the trend where a bowl of salad, an erstwhile sidekick, is emerging to become a lunch or dinner staple for many. 

By salad here, I don't mean the sliced cucumbers and bite-sized onion pieces with green chilli that is served with biryani or tehari, as one usually asks for while having those meals. Salad is welcomed here in all its glory as elsewhere around the world. Full of nutrition as well as packing a flavourful punch. Here we pick three destinations, two brick-and-mortar outlets, and one online platform, to search for your favourite salad.

Peyala: For fusion-loving palates

Peyala has already won hearts with its wraps and gulab jamun cheesecake. Nevertheless, what many don't know is that this place also offers various assortments of chicken, beef, and vegetable salads. 

It must have been my luck as Peyala had Souvlaki chicken, Beef Stroganoff, and Jerk Paneer vegetable salads on its menu the day I visited their Kemal Ataturk Avenue outlet.

In pursuit of turning a boring salad into something extraordinary, the restaurant offers salad bowls that represent nothing but a cacophony of texture. Almost all assortments exhibit the presence of some sort of protein, to satiate to a new level. Make no mistake, Peyala proves that salads can become main meals, or maybe the only meal one can crave for. 

What amazes me is the big list of chicken flavours they have amassed for salad lovers. This includes Lahori Chicken Karahi, Jamaican Jerk Chicken, Chicken Malai Tikka, Souvlaki, Rendang, and Tandoori Chicken. Wondering if you are in a kebab or gyro store? Don't worry. You have the freedom to choose from yoghurt, thousand islands, hot salsa, caesar, wasabi mayo, or hummus as dressing, in case a few meaty concoctions don't seem juicy enough to you.

The way those prolific proteins are presented is quite intriguing. 

For example, take Souvlaki. The Greek street food, also popular for its Mediterranean flavour, is cooked in a skewer. It may be reminiscent of a Shashlik or Seekh kabab. You can take it wrapped in a tortilla. Does it become a Shawarma then? You be the judge of that but in a bowl or a tortilla, its salad-like characteristics cannot be ignored. For beef lovers, a Chittagonian Beef Bhuna flavoured meat is surrounded by a number of greens. Other beef flavours include Thai basil, Korean BBQ, etc. The vegetable salads come as Grilled Veg, Stir Fried Mixed Veg, and Aloo Tikki. 

To bejewel your salad, you can take any three add-ons. Choose from potato salad, fajita veggies, coleslaw, beef bacon, spicy corn, macaroni, croutons, and oven-roasted mushrooms.

When you have, finally, decided what items you want, get them in a bowl and get lost in a world of hefty flavours. Bonus: If you're in a rush, they will wrap your salad in a tortilla.

Tk305 Chicken/Veg salad; Tk345 Beef salad

Greens and Seeds: Sow expectations, reap wonders

If you want a walk-in salad bar experience where local produce galore, Greens and Seeds is your place.

For me, this place is surely the one that triggers nostalgia. Yes, I was talking about the holy trinity: chicken, fries, and coleslaw. The crunch of the cabbage and the mellow taste of the mayo was just a marriage made in heaven. It tasted so good that snippets of childhood memories started flashing before my eyes.

If you are a voracious veggie eater, feel no shame in filling up your bowl with steamed baby corn, green and black olives, red and green kidney beans, and garlic mushrooms. 

And for fruit lovers, Greens and Seeds serves a dish that has earned fame in the culinary history of the world. Originally made with sliced apple, celery, and good mayo, the Waldorf salad is fabled. Greens and Seeds serves it with apples and pineapples! Does that sound like an abomination? Don't worry, sleeked with yoghurt dressing, the overall taste is mind-altering.

For those who are not very adventurous, they serve a conventional salad, where soft greens like lettuce and earthy kidney beans get some lovely company from sweet corn. Tame the bossy flavours with creamy Thousand Island or ranch dressing and voila!

Caution: Even though both these dressings are immensely popular in the west, physicians and nutritionists alike have warned against their high levels of saturated fat and sodium content.

Priced at Tk0.99 per gram, you can eat as much as you like and pay for exactly the amount you pick up.

Salad Bar: A virtual smorgasbord of salads

Looking at the menu of the Salad Bar's menu online, anyone may feel the world is their oyster! They have 30 different salads to choose from! Russian, Korean, German, Greek, Italian, Thai, Vietnamese, Turkish — you name it and they have it! Eventually, we picked three, which were Mexican Chicken salad, Crab salad, and an American Corn salad.

Salad Bar was our most colourful salad experience of all. Freshly chopped lettuce, cabbage, radish, carrot, cheese, capsicum, tomatoes, cucumber, corn, kidney beans, coriander, black olive, spring onion, and chilli — all the items that one could ask for in a salad — were there. 

Blanched in boiling water and bathed in ice-cold water just right, the greens and crunchies were perfectly firm, drizzled with some fresh dressing, and the best part was they didn't induce any jaw fatigue.

The Mexican Chicken salad comes with chilli slices, occasionally firing up your taste buds. What's a Mexican food item if it's not hot? That satisfied, a generous amount of greens and chicken in the bowl equaled one hefty meal!

Upon opening the Crab Salad Bowl, the presence of an adequate amount of crab meat restored our faith in humanity! Dressed in fish sauce, this item is an absolute treat for seafood lovers. Give the items a light toss to mix the dressing with the greens and the crab properly. 

Bonus: The fish sauce, in the beginning, may seem pungent and fishy but the aggressiveness eventually fades out, awakening the salty, savoury, sweetness-one finally meets "umami"!

There is more sweet corn in the American Corn salad than you could ask for. In every way, it lives up to its name. Sprinkling a thin layer of lemon juice on top of it will usher in a paradigm change of flavours. Next to all the crunchy greens in it, the paneer adds a bit of softness to it. The paneer's tad bit salty taste also keeps the salad tasty from the first bite to its last.

Tk349 American Corn; Tk399 Mexican Chicken; Tk439 Crab Salad Bowl