The Weekly Eater Nadine Kam

NADINE KAM / NKAM@STARBULLETIN.COM McDonald's Chicken Caesar Salad, top, and Jack in the Box's Asian Chicken Salad move one step closer toward serving demand for quick gourmet salads.

Fast food eateries
are making bigger
and better salads

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In the future, every foodstuff you can think of will have its own designated day, week or month. Bust out those calendars and Magic Markers and stake your claim for the likes of laulau and shoyu chicken. There is already a Pecan Day (April 14), Homemade Bread Day (Nov. 17), National Egg Salad Week (starting the Monday after Easter) and Canned Food Month (February).

We happen to be at the tail end of National Salad Month (salsa, herbs, barbecue, strawberries, eggs and Iowa beef also share May honors), so the timing could not be better to try one of the new Jack in the Box, McDonald's and Wendy's bigger, better salads.

Just by giving customers a choice of dressings they were far ahead of the local Japanese restaurants still serving iceberg lettuce topped by Thousand Island dressing.

McDonald's took one baby step toward the guilt-free, fast-food direction when it introduced its Salad Shakers a while back. Those were playful, portable and cleverly packaged in plastic drinking cups, but they weren't very practical. With all the lettuce packed tight, there was no shakin' goin' on -- no easy way for the dressing to reach each sheaf.

I'm guessing enough people complained to make execs slap their heads while noting all those people were serious about maximizing the salad experience.

So the salad has returned, a little more mature as befitting a customer base starting to feel and see the effects of having been weaned on burgers and fries. It's not pretty. Yet, they're not quite ready to settle into a pleasureless routine, so you will get a fair share of that tasty duo fat and sodium.

I'D CALL THESE "transitional salads," best for those starting to worry about their health but not quite ready for the realm of vegetarian, macrobiotic, anti-inflammatory, or medically prescribed diet. It's only when you start to see a few too many creases and freckles that making the leap is suddenly logical and painless, even gratifying. Only then will those 3 p.m. chocolate breaks become history.

>> Jack in the Box Chicken Club, Southwest Chicken and Asian Chicken ($4.89). Jack takes a Jekyll-and-Hyde approach to the art of salad making. About half the ingredients are nutritious, such as the black beans and grape tomatoes sitting atop its Southwest Chicken Salad. But the good is countered by a sodium-filled creamy dressing and processed spicy corn sticks. They do give customers control over how much of the wicked stuff goes on to the salad; both dressing and corn sticks come in separate packets. A little goes a long way.

Meanwhile, they got the local soy-sesame-ginger-garlic-sugar flavor right with the Asian Chicken Salad featuring cubes of spring-mix greens (mostly iceberg lettuce), grilled chicken, red onion slices, shredded carrots and refreshing Mandarin orange (canned) slices. As satisfying as it looks -- generally, mo' color mo' better nutritionally -- it gets even better when you discover the accompanying packets of slivered almonds and wonton strips. Just make the healthy choice. (Come on, you can do it!)

>> McDonald's California Cobb, Caesar and Bacon Ranch ($4.99). All these salads have grilled or crispy chicken options, or you can get a meat-free side salad ($3.99). McDonald's is aiming for the mainstream with salads least likely to offend. As a result, they look much plainer than the other restaurants' offerings. The raciest ingredient is the blue cheese that comes with the Cobb salad.

Plain doesn't mean bland, however. The combination of greens, sliced chicken patties and Paul Newman dressings are a great way to start young ones on the path of greens acceptance that will pay off for them in the form of better health once they hit their 30s and 40s.

Somehow, crispy chicken doesn't quite seem as bad for you when it comes with this many greens, including traces of spicy arugula and bitter raddicchio.

>> Wendy's Mandarin Chicken, Chicken BLT, Taco Supreme ($4.99) and Garden Mix ($2.99). Wendy's rolled these out last March, so have a year's worth of feedback from the public. As with both the Jack and McDonald's salads, the dressing is where most of the fat and sodium comes from although the Asian and honey mustard dressings that accompany the first two salads were the mildest of the three eateries. According to Wendy's marketing manager David Kusz, the chain is responding to consumer requests by introducing reduced fat and/or low-fat dressing on June 1, the same time its Southwest Chicken Salad debuts. The salad will be a seasonal offering available through summer. Its performance will determine whether Wendy's introduces more seasonal salads in the future.

To date, the Mandarin Chicken and Chicken BLT have been the most popular of the salads Kusz said. The Mandarin Chicken salad also made the Center for Science in the Public Interest list of most healthy fast-food items last year, with 480 calories and 26 grams of fat, only 2.5 grams of which are saturated.

I liked the two chicken salads here better than the other two chains simply because the chicken tasted the least processed. But try to find a Wendy's. They're only in Kunia, Kapolei and Wahiawa.

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See some past restaurant reviews in the
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Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:

	excellent;
	very good, exceeds expectations;
	average;
	below average.

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