Cobb Salad

Cobb salad after tossing.

As with so many other recipes, the Cobb salad was invented in 1937 at the Brown Derby in Los Angeles. The owner, Robert H. Cobb, scrounged around his fridge to make a late night snack for Sid Grauman, of the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater. He chopped everything up because Grauman had a toothache. The salad was an instant hit with Grauman and it spread throughout Hollywood.

Since I had all these lovely tomatoes and had already made sinh to ca chua (Vietnamese tomato shake), bruschetta, borscht, and in plain salads with balsamic vinaigrette, I knew I wanted to make something really colorful.

The Cobb salad's many ingredients made me want to display them in such a way to show off all its colors. You can clearly see the hard-boiled eggs, avocados, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, chicken, blue cheese, and bacon. Drizzle with the balsamic vinaigrette I made the other day, and toss.

You'll need:

balsamic vinaigrette (Or substitute with ranch or blue cheese dressing if you prefer.)

2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

1 avocado, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

3 romaine lettuce leaves, chopped

1 large chicken breast, grilled or pan-fried (I pan-fried mine with balsamic vinegar for added flavor.)

1/4 cup blue cheese

3 strips bacon, crumbled (I prefer to slice the bacon before frying.)

Chop. Chop. Chop. Lay out on prettily on a plate. Drizzle balsamic vinaigrette over and toss. (Incidentally, I had already made my balsamic vinaigrette, but when I searched for a little bit about the history of the Cobb salad, I realized my dressing recipe was almost the same as the original.)

There are so many flavors in this salad that I never get bored munching on crisp lettuce, creamy avocado and blue cheese, salty bacon, juicy tomatoes. Mmm.