Vietnamese Chicken Salad, Gott's Roadside, Napa, CA
"Romaine lettuce & shredded cabbage tossed with carrots, bean sprouts, cucumber, pickled fresno chiles, green onions, mint, cilantro, grilled chicken breast, peanuts & lime vinaigrette & topped with crispy onions. $10.99"
This was one of those order-at-the-counter-take-a-buzzy-remote-coaster places with a giant wall-sized menu that you read while standing in line. I was already set on getting the CCS on the menu, but this VCS was posted on the "specials" sheet at the register.
I guess they think lime, cilantro, mint, and peanuts make this Vietnamese. There was definitely a pleasing tartness (I love vinegary flavors a lot... more than most people), but it was a fairly small salad, even for $10.99.
This is my third salad post to this blog, and one thing that I've noticed is that the dressings have been the highlight of these ACSs. There's something about the 'challenge' of an Asian salad dressing that results in strong and complex flavor combinations. It makes me wonder if that's why these salad-chefs (whoever they are) seem to get fairly lazy about the rest of the salad. A little tweaking, and this VCS at Gott's could have been really great. Tweak #1: don't serve it in a paper container meant for onion rings.
Ratings (zero to four stars) Asianness: ** Chickenness: * Saladness: ** Overall: **









