Recently, a friend asked me this question: "I also have a question on your salad bar entry. Specifically, how do dressing issues (described below) affect your plate. The issues, as I see them, are as follows: 1) I'd like to avoid dressing spilling onto non-salad items (e.g., breadstick / roll), 2) I want to make sure I can adequately mix the dressing into the salad. If I pile the plate with too much grub, when I mix the salad, it spills over the plate. And that, my friend, is a no-no."
So, I've given this a lot of thought. Personally, I like to make salad a separate course, many times going "European" and eating it last. Mmmm.....
But I can see how, for the purposes of this blog offering "expert" advice, that's a cop out. So, I'm going to get more aggressive and offer other solutions.
First, on Quantity: I've just recently learned that salads have MUCH LESS lettuce than you think they do. Especially when they have lots of other great stuff like garbanzo beans, red peppers, water chestnuts, asparagus, etc. (stuff you're not going to make at home). So, take about half the lettuce/base green you think you want. This applies at home too, but when you're at an all you can eat buffet, you're more likely to go heavier on the lettuce/spinach/etc. than you really need to to get a good balanced salad. This alone should aleviate you of the problem of having stuff fall over the edge.
And, you need to remember, this is a buffet, time is on your side. You don't need to have just one salad with everything possible in it. If you're going for an all-salad meal, do it in stages. Pick 2 dressings you like, then go after two different salads (fresh plates in between). This will get you the protein to be a big strong boy, and still save your lap from a salad avalanche when you try to toss that monstrosity you brought back to the table.
On Operation Dressing:
1. The Barrier method: This essentially puts your salad and dressing on one side of the plate, and your other food at the other. Take a breadstick, a piece of meat that goes well with the dressing you chose, or a whole piece of vegetable (e.g. carrot or celery stick) and make a small barrier to the dressing.
UPSIDE: this puts all your courses on one plate
DOWNSIDE: honestly, probably not very effective unless you have mashed potatoes as your barrier
2. The Bullseye method: Put the salad and dressing in the middle of your plate (counterintuitive?) and surround it with the other food. Most plates have a slope toward the center of the dish, which will mean the dressing naturally seeps down toward the center.
UPSIDE: Eating from the middle of the plate out allows the traditional Salad-first approach to eating and saves your other food from contamination
UPSIDE 2: Eating from the outside in allows for you to finish the rest of your meal, then have all the room in the world to toss the salad
DOWNSIDE: Eating from the outside in puts the salad last (I personally see this as an upside, but not all do)
3. The Mixed method: Now, this is not a pure "well, it all goes to the same place" philosophy (seriously, you're on this blog, you don't really believe that, do you?). Instead, look at this as an opportunity to enjoy your own creation, where you add some additional components to your salad in order to enjoy them all at once; purposefully getting dressing/sauce on everything and mixing flavors.
UPSIDE: Very tasty, new creations abound!
DOWNSIDE: Need to be careful about what you put in there so it all meshes well... a little "inner chef" required.
Advanced technique: 2 plates, 1 hand. Salad on one, entree on the other, silverware in the pocket. I've done it. Try it with paper first (and outside). Trick is to create separation so the contents of the bottom plate don't end up on the bottom of the top plate.
