Apple Cheddar Salad

My mother and I went to Eccolo in Berkeley on Saturday for lunch.  It was all and all delightful.  We ordered an entree salad to share to start with.  This salad was so lovely that I went out and bought all the ingrediants and I have been making it pretty much every day for lunch since then.  After we finished the salad (not a single piece of lettuce remained) and our drinks (pink slipper for me, coffee for mom) we dug into our burgers.  Now the burgers are a little pricey 12.50 for a burger, but good.  Cooked to perfection with caramelized onions on top.  The edges where rolled in salt I believe which I could have done without.   It left you with every other bite being a bit to salty, that would be my only complaint. Which places this burger at good and not yummy or scrumptious or well...GREAT.  We had a little moment when we thought "man I miss the burgers at the balboa cafe" but it passed, for the enjoyment that the salad brought us far out weigh the extra salt on the burgers.

Apple Chedder Salad thing (as close as I could get it to Eccolo's)

1 Pink Lady Apple

1/2 cup cubed or crumbled Aged white cheddar (English style)

1/2 cup candied walnuts

Mixed greens

Good olive oil, and balsamic with a little dijon mustard to emulsify (for the dressing)

So good and I will have it for lunch today again.  There is enough here for a large entree salad or a salad to share.  

Side note, my mother and I often when lunching end up ordering burgers.  I can't quite place my figure on why, we love many foods and burgers always seem so...basic.  No matter who nice a place it is, when it is just the two of us we always default to the burger.  This of course makes us quite the critic, and the above mentioned burgers at the Balboa Cafe are some of our favorites. Eccolo's came with homemade bread and butter pickles, I, not being pickle person, could not tell you how they stacked up.  For that you will have to go to my mom.   I guess this is why we have my dad, for some reason his presence brakes the magic burger spell and we start ordering things like the duck confit salad when he is around.