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August 28, 2006
Gaming the menu at La Salsa
I've always thought of La Salsa as Baja Fresh's lesser cousin. Most of the La Salsas are in malls, and they just don't offer the value of Baja Fresh or Sharky's.
And gaming the menu in visits past hasn't been as satisfying.
But no longer. We were at the Northridge Fashion Center mall yesterday, and it was time for lunch. Since both Ilene and I love the California Veggie Burrito, we got a couple of those (with black beans, although according to La Salsa's excellent calorie-counting feature, the pintos have fewer calories and less fat). For our 3-year-old Lulu, I ordered a side of rice, a side of black beans and a side of flour tortillas. Usually they do a couple of small bowls, but this time I was surprised by a full plate, half beans and half rice, with tortilla chips. The little girl was hungry and ate all of the tortillas and almost all of the beans. So even though she was "full of beans," after a trip to her favorite place on earth, the Disney Store, she fell asleep in the car holding her new Sleeping Beauty doll and had a pretty long nap that continued once Ilene got her inside and into bed.
But back to the beans. I think the whole rice/beans plate was about $3 (wish I'd saved my receipt), so another successful episode of "Gaming the Menu" -- and at a mall, no less.
And those California Veggie Burritos are pretty great, though at $5.99 each could be cheaper. But they do have a nice blend of cheese and avocado with the beans and rice.
As Ilene observed, mall food is pretty bad for you -- Tommy's burgers and the like being pretty popular. It would be nice if there was a way to eat at the mall and not add to the stress our arteries are already feeling. Things got worse since the Catch 21 chain disappeared from local malls -- their salads were great. The California Crisp at the Westfield Fashion Square mall looks promising, though I haven't eaten there yet. If it turns out to be not fatty enough, it's next to the Cinnabon outlet, where there's a window in front of the prep area so you can see just how much butter and other sugary gunk goes into those famously gooey buns.
A search for Cinnabon nutrition information on their Web site yields nothing. Perhaps it's too frightening.
Posted by Steven Rosenberg at August 28, 2006 2:50 PM
Comments
I challenge anyone to find a brown bread item, or even a brown tortilla, or anything with a shred of fiber at the mall outside of La Salsa's beans. We went to the Burbank Media center and found: McDonald's (minus the veggie burger they had for 3 minutes), Sbarro, Wahoo fish tacos, Greek food -- and even though some of those can be made moderately healthy, the toddler was having none of it. I ended up pleading with the lady at Hot Dog On a Stick (they have a veggie dog they will dip and fry up for ya, making it sickening) for a cheese stick with no covering and no frying. The teenager working there felt awful about charging me $2.50 for a stick of cheese on a stick and ended up donating it to the toddler. I'd tell people to vote with their dollar, but where to spend it at the mall? Nowhere.
Posted by: Ilene at August 31, 2006 2:22 PM