Of Hits and Misses...

I was at The Salad Bar again. Am I boring you? My original intention was to eat at Lohas, a cafe that serves organic vegetarian food. You see, I wanted to do penance for overindulging at a buffet the day before. What buffet? The buffet served during a conference. Yes, I'm all about the food. Conference and seminars means food and more food.

So, after going for 3 rounds (or was it 4?) at the buffet, I was really stuffed. Let me recall what I had - Chicken with Thai Basil, Mutton Varuval and Salmon in some kind of glaze. That was round 1. Sorry no pictures, not appropriate to snap food photos with conference crowd for company.

Round 2 was New Orleans Salad, seafood salad (the prawns were fresh and awesome), kerabu mangga, tuna and pasta salad and an assortment of smoked meats in a delicious wholegrain mustard sauce.

Round 3 was gado-gado, some more seafood salad (there was only a little bit left) and more smoked meat. OK, only 3 rounds and I was stuffed. What a pig! No, I did not have desserts and no, I did not fall asleep during the afternoon session.

So after all that indulgence, it was time to go vegetarian. But alas, I forgot that Lohas closes on Tuesdays. Bah! So I had to go to their neighbor, the very familiar Salad Bar.

I had no idea what to eat. After flipping the menu, I remembered that they had Chicken Chop which is air fried; a curiosity to me. After confirming with the cashier that this item was available, I also ordered a 1/4 sized Fruity Nuthouse salad to go with it.

The salad arrived first as expected. It's a mix of lettuce, apples, honeydew, grapes, cashew nuts and pumpkin seeds. From what I read in the menu, the dressing is a sweet plum dressing. But it tasted like fruit yogurt to me.

I'm afraid I don't like this salad at all. The nuts were raw (supposed to be healthier way of consuming) and I very much prefer roasted nuts, which are tastier. And the dressing was not to my liking. It was very difficult to eat. Just as well, this was a small serving.

I suspect this is a yogurt based dressing and I do not like yogurt in dressings. It's just me, others may find this salad to their liking.

The Chicken Chop arrived after I finished the salad.

It looks good, right? But looks can be deceiving. This is entirely my opinion, OK? Others may beg to differ.

The chicken was on the dry side. I believe this must be the breast and it was sliced very thin. The taste was just alright. Not bad but not good either. The description is "airfried with wheat flakes batter". 

This piece of chicken needs improvement in terms of seasoning and also the cooking method. Another reason why it was so dry could be that it had been in the freezer for too long and it dried out. With the benefit of hindsight, I noticed the server looking apprehensive when she served me this dish.

The salad was dressed in their Italian dressing which I found quite overpowering with herbs. The fries were well, ordinary fries. They were cut into thin sticks and at best I would say, they were passable.

Notice how generous they are with the sauce and mayonnaise (to make the chicken go down easier?). At first I thought the one on the left is tomato sauce but after a few dips, I realized it was hot. So it must be chili sauce.

And I have an axe to grind with that mayonnaise-like sauce. It tasted really weird. I first dipped my fries into it, then to further confirm, I dipped my fork into it and had a taste. Ugh! This can't be mayonnaise or it's mayonnaise that has gone bad. So I left it untouched.

Well, so much for satisfying my curiosity about air fried chicken. This one was not worth the RM23.18 (inclusive GST) I paid. At least now I know what to avoid at The Salad Bar.