Hi everyone, welcome to another episode of potlog food talks. Today we're going to talk about the light side of food. The bane of all buffets. The pain of all buffets. Salads. So what's the deal with salads? Do you have any favorite salads? Do I have any favorite salads? It could be the salad as the leafy green or salad as a dish ingredient. So do you have a specific one where you say, like I have to say I really like a, it's not something I have super often, but I really like a Caesar salad.
When there's a place I know it's going to be a good one, I'll probably have one, you know, like. Yeah, that's the thing. It's just never good. I think like a Caesar salad is such an amazing thing. Like if it's done right, you know, like nice croutons, you know, a couple of anchovies in there, you know, amazing dressing, nice chicken, like a little bit of ham, crispy ham could be so tasty, you know?
And somehow it's something I would never ever, ever order in a restaurant because I feel like it's always going to be disappointing. That's something that I'd make at home. Yeah. Like I partially agree. That's why I said if, if it's a restaurant where I know that it's a good place to have a Caesar salad, I would probably order it. I don't know.
You know, you know, a salad that's because I'm not a person who ordered salad at a restaurant, you know, it's like, but I am a person who enjoys eating salad. A salad that I would order at a restaurant is a nice coleslaw. I'm a big fan of coleslaw. Oh really? Okay. Yeah. Coleslaw. Also, coleslaw is, it's this thing, it's sort of like, if it's like mediocre, it's like kind of really just that. It's just disappointing, but it well made coleslaw. It's delicious.
I had a coleslaw back in the day in the small town called London. There was a restaurant called Pit Q and it's, it's been closed for several years. The owner, he's got Coombshead farm now in Cornwall. Don't know if you know it. No, no idea. But he had a restaurant called Pit Q near Soho and they were supposed to be like a sort of barbecue restaurant, but they were just kind of just making whatever they wanted. It didn't feel very barbecue-y to me.
But they had a green chili coleslaw and that was like, I remember eating it and I was like, man, this is the most delicious thing ever. They had two things on the menu at that time. They had a, like a whole loaf of sourdough that was called like dripping sourdough. So they, it was like soaked with meat juice and you would just like pull it apart and eat it. And they had this green chili slaw that like still to this day I think about, cause it was just amazing.
I think it was like made with fermented green chilies or something like that. It was super tasty. Like a memorable salad I had recently, it was in Singapore. There was this Vietnamese restaurant called Miss Pho and man, it was amazing. It was probably one of the best Vietnamese I've eaten so far. And they had this raw green mango salad, but it had like this cubes of pork belly. So nice. Amazing. You know, with the fish sauce and all this Vietnamese flavors, super nice.
You know that Caesar salad is actually a Mexican salad. We talk about this. Is it green? Yeah. Yeah. Like a lot of people, if you talk about Caesar salad to an Italian, he would be like, what is that? And also you will see that most people pronounce it in English. They say Caesar salad, even, you know, then nobody says it's insalata, or something like in Italian. Ah, that makes sense. Yeah. It's insalata. It's like a Mexican salad, created like in North Mexico.
And it's called Caesar because it's Romana salad and Parmesan, you know, like, because it has like Italian ingredients, but it's like a Mexican creation. Yeah. Ah, that makes sense. Because actually when I was living in Mexico, there were a few places that still made the Caesar salad, like table side. Exactly. You know? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's really nice. I remember having that in Venezuela. They come and they do the mayo in front of you with anchovies and so on.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really cool. I also heard that originally there weren't anchovies. There was like Worcestershire sauce that has anchovies. And then someone like just wanted to enhance the anchovy profile in the flavor. And, but the original one was... Anchovies, very new. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the key ingredients for me. Anchovy, bacon, you know, crispy bacon and Parmesan. And then like the mustard dressing is just like umami. Yeah. Cotons, you know, there's... Garlic croutons.
Yeah. Going back to what you were saying about the green mango salad is also one of my favorite salads actually. I don't know the Vietnamese version with pork belly, but I love the Thai version, the som tam. Yeah. Or also that there is also the variation with green papaya, which is pretty similar. It's actually the same. Just... That's what I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's papaya. But yours was mango. Yeah. Exactly. They had like in the same menu, you could choose mango or papaya.
And I choose mango. That's really nice. I don't think I've ever had green mango, to be honest. Yeah. But actually that's interesting because in Venezuela it's super common to have a green mango and you will eat it with like a spice mixture is called adobo. Basically you dip it, it's with salt, you know, it's like a seasoning you would use normally for stews or meat and you put the mango there and then you have it.
Yeah. And so mango is a fruit that comes from Asia and so there weren't mangoes like 200 years ago in Venezuela. It's something relatively new. Well, same as the whole colonization and the whole new culture that exists in that territory. But it really caught my mind when I was in Singapore, they were also selling green mangoes with this spice mixture. And I was like, wow, the whole thing was, you know, imported to Venezuela the whole way of eating green mango.
I saw that was something like really, you know, like from us and it's not. That was interesting. Yeah, nice. I have to say that the green mangoes that I tried in Asia, they were almost sweet, you know, because usually with a green mango, it's more like, I wouldn't know how to describe it, but it's like a not sweet, you know, it's like a tangy flavor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, of course. That sounds super nice, honestly. Sounds really delicious.
Well, another another super classic is I would say the caprese salad is something so basic and so nice. It doesn't need anything else. Honestly, if it's nice, that's also a thing. Like if I see a caprese salad on a menu, I will never order it unless it's like a super nice, well-known Italian place, you know, because it's just kind of like the tomato. It's so simple, but like all the ingredients have to be super nice.
If the tomatoes aren't nice, you know, if the mozzarella isn't nice, you know, if the olive oil isn't nice, it's just like, nah, you know. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. And also, even if everything you said is nice, but it's not balanced, you know, it won't work, you know, because also you need specific, like a specific mozzarella and a specific tomato to make a nice caprese, in my opinion. Yeah. You know what I really hate?
People say they make caprese salad and they slice tomatoes and mozzarella so far so good, and then they put pesto on top. I hate that. Ah, so you're a caprese Nazi. Okay, okay, okay. Good to know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I hate that. I'm actually just like, I'm really salad obsessed, you know, like it makes me really angry when people do that. It's like pesto is pesto, caprese is caprese. Capiche?
I have to remember, like the first time you caught my attention cooking was when we first met working at McGaw, and there were always this staff meal salads. And I remember the dressings you made were really nice until one day the chef got really angry and was like, and Phil, I know you're using the fucking mustard oil for the staff salad meal. Stop doing that. Yeah. So that was the reason you were using super expensive oil for the staff meal, right? No, that wasn't the reason.
I think that that happened like one time where I put like a little bit in, you know, but I just figured out how to make very tasty dressing. And it's like, I still do that to today. It's almost like emulsified to the point that it's almost like a mayonnaise, but it's just really simple. You just, you have your acidity. So usually I use lemon. So lemon juice, lemon zest, and a little bit of vinegar. Right? So you have the fresh acidity and you have the vinegar acidity is important. Right?
I do the same. Yeah. Yeah. Then a little bit of mustard, then either some honey or some sugar, because you need the sweetness to balance the sourness. You don't want it to be sweet, but you need it to balance. Right? Agreed. Salt, pepper, if you want. And then just oil. Not pure like crap olive oil, do a little bit of olive oil if you want the olive oil flavor and then just do like a nice neutral oil. And that's it.
And just emulsify it until it's a nice creamy consistency, almost like a loose mayonnaise. Grape seed oil is very nice. Ah, yeah. That was also one of the expensive oils you were using. No, no, no, no, no. That's a lie. That's a lie. I was using the Il Cassone olive oil from Italy. Okay. Which was not as expensive. Okay, okay. Sorry. And yeah. And then just like just season, you know, I think like with a lot of cooking, it's just the proper seasoning.
I think people are sometimes a little bit too shy. Yeah. Like addressing, addressing has to be over salty because you will spread it all over the salad. Right? It has to work kind of like the salt you will add. Almost. Yeah, pretty much that. This is something that I learned when I was cooking Thai is really pushing the flavors up to the top where you're like, okay, if I put any more salt in, it would be too salty. But where it's here, it's just, it has power, you know, as oomph.
You have to do that with the dressing. Cause like you say, you know, you have like salad, it has loads of water in it. So you need to, you need something that can hold up to that. Yeah. And also a rule of thumb is three to one, three parts oil, one part acidity, be it vinegar or lemon, depending on the oil or the vinegar you're using, perhaps you have to adjust, but most of the times it will just work just like that. Okay, nice. I didn't know that actually. Oh really? I always just eyeballed it.
I'm really terrible with recipes and with quantities. I eyeball everything. Well, but this is like a, like a proportion more than a recipe, you know, but I actually learned that at culinary school. And then I have this book on ratios that they only talk about ratios and proportions when you're cooking. And they also use the same, same proportion three to one. Nice. And I'm also talking about dressings because you have that rule three to one oil to acidity.
So you play around with any kind of oil and any kind of acidity that could be interesting. As you said, you could use lime, lemon, vinegar, or all of them mixed same with the oils. I actually like simple dressings. I've worked in restaurant where they had this complicated recipes where they use like 20 types of vinegars and 20 types of honeys. And at the end, you know, like just lemon and olive oil is a super nice dressing. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
You know, there are things that are so simple. And then you mentioned honey or sugar, but also playing with the sweet component using, I don't know, maple syrup or agave or this kind of things. It's also like something to do. Yeah, absolutely. And I think with like everything in cooking, I think people really underestimate quality of product.
You know, it's like a lot of people that I see with that kind of, you know, they come into a restaurant, they're sort of like, oh, we had that a lot of at Margot actually. They say, oh, I'm allergic to vinegar. They say they're allergic. They're actually allergic. They just don't like vinegar. The thing is that they only know like the really horrible vinegar that you find a supermarket. Vinegar is not equal to vinegar.
There's vinegars that are absolutely delicious that you could eat by the spoon, you know, and they're still acidic, but they're absolutely delicious. Have you ever seen pure acetic acid? Pure what? Acetic acid is a acid component of vinegar, but like at the laboratory level, you open it and man, if you get close to it, it's even dangerous to smell it like, to smell like this. You can break your nose if you do, you know, but it really feels like smelling super strong vinegar.
Is that like what vinegar powder is made out of? Probably, yes. Vinegar powder was a very tasty. A little bit of vinegar powder on top of your fried chicken. Very. And also vinegar is an absolute universe. You have malt vinegar. I love sherry vinegar. You have even champagne vinegar, different balsamics, darts, lights, you know, it's like a whole universe. This is becoming a vinegar episode, but vinegar is a really amazing product. It's a flavor enhancer, actually.
You know, when we were cooking at Faberkin, in Faberkin, I discovered my love for really clean distilled vinegars. We would use the Swedish vinegar. It has like, it was like really highly distilled and it just had this very clean, crisp vinegar acidity. And we often use that to finish dishes. So for example, to give you a really good example, we had the vinegar in these like little spray bottles and we had a dish of like a braised and glazed lamb tongue with like pickled vegetables and stuff.
And this lamb tongue is obviously really fatty, really meaty. And after we plated it, we would take the spray bottle and just give it a little and just spray it with white vinegar because it would cut through this fat and through this richness. And it made a huge difference. And like I said, people really underestimate it. Yeah, I really, this is really becoming a vinegar episode. I learned that there is this video, I hope it's still on YouTube of Thomas Keller making gnocchis.
That's actually how I learned to make gnocchis. It's super well explained and it really works the way he explains it. The moment he's like, you know, sauteing the gnocchis in butter, he has like a squeeze bottle and he adds some vinegar to it. And he says like, as you said, that vinegar works like a flavor enhancer. And I see that actually more in German kitchens with German chefs. I see it more common to use vinegar as a, to put a kick in sauces and dishes and these kinds of things.
I would say I haven't seen it as much in other regions. But yeah, it's something I really like to do. Like just some drops of vinegar to a stew. It just like brings some balance that is interesting instead of having it just plain, you know? Yeah, absolutely. And I think Asians understand this very well. You will always have a lot of acidity in most foods. Yeah, it's understanding this balance of sort of like savory, sweet, sour, and sour is not equal to sour.
You know, it's like, like I said, you know, that's why I make my vinaigrette with like lemon and vinegar where you're like kind of like, well, they're both acidic, but it's a different kind of acidity, you know? But like, you know, if you have something acidic, adding a little bit of sweet to balance it is very nice. If you have something sweet, adding a little bit of salt or adding a little bit of acidic is very nice to balance it.
It's just about understanding the balance of those flavor components. I also remember we had like this French dressing that was super nice. And I remember that one had some chicken stock and boiled potatoes to give it texture. Nice. But the key ingredient in that dressing was it was a Merlot grape seed oil that was amazing. Nice. That was actually the main flavor. The other things were just, you know, like giving it texture, giving it some also meaty flavors with the stock.
But the star was the oil for sure. What was the name of this Austrian company that made these oils? You remember? Gegenbauer. Gegenbauer, amazing producer. They made like whatever, you know, like cherry seed oil. Absolutely. They made really amazing vinegars like cucumber vinegar, tomato vinegar. Super delicious. Yeah. I also remember well, pumpkin seed oil, the best in the world for me is from Austria for sure. And they also have like a super nice one.
Yeah. It's like if you've never seen it, it's got like this deep green, almost like sapphire shiny look to it. It's very rare to find it in that quality. And Dave, like you just said, it's called Stylisches pumpkin seed oil. That's the name of the area. And it's super nice. It's very traditional to finish like pumpkin soups and stuff, but it's like really versatile. Didn't you talk about that already? Ice cream with pumpkin seed oil? Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Like it was just like a plain creme anglaise. And it had like once it was like in the ice cream machine, you would add the oil to emulsify it while mixing. And it ended up being like a, it looked like a pistachio ice cream, like super green. Yeah. And yeah, it was something hard to, like if you don't know what it is, to identify what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Super nice ingredient.
So going back to the salads, there was also a salad I really liked that was like same as we talk about green papaya or mango, same kind of cut, you know, like julienned with a mandolin, but with raw pumpkin since we're talking about pumpkin. Oh yeah. And I remember that that salad had just lime, olive oil and honey that was the dressing and some chives and that was it. And it's a super nice salad.
I've done it many times like for Christmas because it's like a pumpkin thing, but at the same time, something fresh. Usually like Christmas dinners, you have everything super heavy and sometimes it lacks like a fresh salad somewhere. Yeah. And that's like a super nice option. Wow. That's really nice. Yeah. I just remember the salad that really stayed in my head when I ate it. Like I still think about it sometimes today.
There's like Japanese, I wouldn't call it like necessarily salads, but they're like, there's a term, Zucchermonos. Zucchermonos. Exactly. Zucchermonos. Okay. They're like cold vinegar dishes. Yeah. Zucchermono is pickles and Zucchermono is like cold vinegar dishes.
And I had one in a Coya bar in London and it was like marinated seaweed in like a really clear vinegar dressing, but the dressing was almost like a very sharp soup, you know, kind of like kombucha, like where it's very acidic, but you can kind of eat it like a soup. It's very refreshing. Ice cold. Is it? And then it was like seaweed and berries. Nice. Like red currants and stuff like that. And it was so, so tasty.
And the combination, seaweed, cold vinegar, and like fresh berries was outstanding. It was so nice. Another one I remember I really liked, it was, I had this super nice fresh cucumbers, baby cucumbers. And I also had like this super strong pickles. I think it was actually, well, like this American Jewish, like cucumber pickles, they're super strong.
Actually one of the things I like the most in American food are those bloody cucumber pickles, like the ones you'll find in cats and this kind of daily places. So that the brine was super strong. And what I did, it was this fresh baby cucumbers and the dressing was the brine of the pickled ones also with lime, but then it was kind of confusing because it was, is this fresh or pickled? You know, like it was like this double game and the salad. And that was also like something fun to eat.
Yeah. Well, there's also this whole universe of raw vegetables that you can use like, you know, carrots or this kind of thing that you can put into a salad, cabbage. Yeah. Like all the, like the chopped salads, you know, like a cop salad. I mean, salads, they're, you know, endless, you know? Yeah. Like what you call it in German, right? Rokost. Yeah. Like Grüntes. Yeah. Exactly. Grüntes is very nice. With like a little bit of like a ranch dressing next to it. It's delicious, you know?
But then like this, like, you know, like I really love like, you know, tabbouleh for example, super, super delicious. All these sort of like chopped salads are very, very nice. Well, and talking about Germany, potato salad, of course. That's a whole category on its own. Yeah, potato salad is a serious topic, you know? What's your favorite potato salad? Are you like a vinegar, vinaigrette person? Are you a mayonnaise person or what?
I'm a mayonnaise person and I like when it has like celery, apples, like a good old mustard, like that, that kind of potato salad. Nice. I see. I see. Yeah. It's kind of cool when you have those like crunchy apples in the salad, you know, like a potato salad. Yeah. And then you have like pickles and stuff like that. And yeah, I really like that too. Yeah. And if I go too crazy, I will put some beef tongue in it for sure. Oh my God. Yeah. So nice.
Germany has a type of potato salad that I think is super cool, which is made with beef stock. Yeah. It also has like brown butter. Is that possible? Is that the same one? No, not really. I mean, you can, you can do that. I have definitely done that before. But yeah, it's, you basically, you cook your potatoes and you cut them. And then while they're still warm, you put them in a bowl and add some like clear, intense brown beef stock. And you let them kind of soak that up.
The stock thickens a little bit because of the starch of the potatoes. And then you make your dressing with that. It was sort of like raw onions. And my grandma made one, one time, which was insanely delicious, where she made that, the potato base with the stock. And then she added like sauteed chanterelles. Nice. With like a sort of like bacon that she put in and seared with the chanterelles.
And then she deglazed that with like a dark vinegar, like a malt vinegar and added that to the potato and beef stock things. And I was like, what is going on? Like this is, that's bad ass. Yeah. I was super bad ass. And I was like, like mind blown. It was super, super tasty. Yeah. And there are like this absolutely not Mayonnaise potato salads in Germany that they look like glazed potatoes. It's probably the same one you're mentioning, right? Yes, exactly.
Yeah. Yeah. But the Mayonnaise ones, I mean, like a, like a Spanish and saladilla rusa, you know, I can eat that. I could eat that every day for breakfast and dinner easily. Yeah. Yeah. That's also one of those things. If it's good, you know, like the one from Bar Antonio here, it's amazing. There's also another bar called the escura. It also has like a super nice one, but in general also bodega donostierra.
Usually the salad, you will find good in saladillas here, but you can also find really shitty ones. It's not that difficult. Yeah. It's not difficult to fuck an ensaladilla rusa up. You know, like it's just like bland. If you don't season the potatoes and you don't season the dressing, it's just like bland potato with mayonnaise and like a couple of frozen peas in there. You know, it's horrible. Yeah. It's also key to have like good, add some pickle component.
I really like using, there was a place I worked in and we would use olives filled with anchovies to the, just chop them and put them into the ensaladilla. That was really nice. That's very nice. Yeah. And also here in Bar Antonio, what they do is they shave, you know, mojama, tuna ham, a microplane mojama on top, just tuna ham powder on top of the ensaladilla. Sometimes they also put like anchovies on your portion of ensaladilla. It's super nice. I've only ever had it with anchovies.
I've never had the mojama. What the fuck is going on? Well, you have to know the right places. Because I, it's because I'm a foreigner, you know, they saw that I'm not spasque and they were like, he's not getting any mojama. Fuck him. Give him the cheap anchovies from the back.