Food & Drink: Treat yourself to a fresh Foode salad
By Rachel Pinsky
Published: June 30, 2017, 6:02am
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Foode Cafe & Catering offers up multiple salads including the Cucumber Feta BLT salad with ranch and Avocado Caprese salad with a balsamic glaze. Rachel Pinsky Photo Gallery
When I Googled the term “sad salad,” I found a bunch of memes decrying salad as a meal and even a book called “Sad Desk Salad.”
Why all this salad sadness? When I think of salads, I envision those mammoth mounds of greens with a mix of tantalizing toppings, sitting in clear plastic bowls, that the Kardashian sisters chomp on while arguing with each other between Snapchats.
Seeking a Kardashian-worthy salad, I found myself at the new Foode Cafe & Catering in downtown Vancouver.
The downtown location of Foode is one of the three in the Foode empire created by Joseph Nutting and Jo?l Nehm (they also own Luxe). It is a wedge-shaped cafe in the Riverview Tower building on Ninth and Washington streets.
Orders are placed at the counter (or online via their website) and food is brought to your table.
The space is tastefully but sparsely furnished with small, round marble-covered tables and slate gray chairs all facing the windows as if there was something to see outside (there isn’t).
The clientele are mostly professionals dressed in business attire grabbing a quick bite. As I craned my neck to look away from the window and over to the counter, I noticed a man in black trousers and a white dress shirt staring intently at his large smartphone as if certain a catastrophe would occur during the few minutes he waited for his salad to be boxed.
Pop tunes played on the speaker system — the Chainsmokers, Milky Chance and Coldplay.
My salad arrived at my table, hand-delivered by co-owner Joseph Nutting. I ordered the Cucumber Feta BLT salad with ranch. The salad was a generous heap of mesclun with fresh chopped cherry tomatoes and cucumbers. Feta cheese and bacon bits were liberally sprinkled on top, adding a nice saltiness. The bacon bits seemed fakey and were inferior to the other ingredients. The salad had a good greens-to-topping ratio; I wasn’t eating forkfuls of only lettuce.
The ranch dressing was fresh, creamy and herby.
A couple of days later, I decided to try the online ordering system and treat myself to an Avocado Caprese Salad with balsamic glaze dressing. The salad was a bed of baby spinach with loads of fresh mozzarella, sliced cherry tomatoes, and wedges of avocado.
Everything was fresh and delicious. The balsamic glaze dressing was a syrupy, tangy and sweet balsamic reduction.
The online ordering system was easy to use. I received a text message as soon as my food was ready, and my order was set to go when I arrived. Individual orders can be delivered to places in the downtown area.
Foode also offers a nice grab and go section filled with salads, sandwiches, mac and cheese, yogurt parfaits and drinks.
Rachel Pinsky can be emailed at couveeats@gmail.com. You can follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @couveeats.
If you go
• Where: Foode Cafe & Catering, 900 Washington St., Vancouver.
• Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
