When you think everything is on the internet, it’s not always. This salad was served at the Press Box restaurant in Niagara Falls, New York, and was called the Press Box salad. The dressing was the key. The Press Box restaurant was a hole in the wall kind of place where you went into the kitchen and wrote your order on a notepad, and the cook came and slapped it in front of you, no servers. It was decidedly not the cleanest place on earth, but 10 bucks would get you a giant porterhouse steak, one of these salads, and a split of Schlitz beer. There were a couple other dishes unique to this place, but the salad is my culinary white whale and I finally found a recipe after all these years. This photo is from a diner in Oswego that makes it, the owner used to work at the Press Box, but I’m excited to make my own. I think it was the best thing I ever ate in my life.
The restaurant was partly funded by the mob, and the owner would tell you to hurry up and finish your meal, LOL. A real character.
Here’s a recipe for a salad I once had at a restaurant in the 90s:
Ingredient list:
- Lettuce
-
Chop lettuce
-
Serve in bowl
(it wasn’t a good restaurant)
I think I recently been to that exact restaurant, wow
I’m envious. I’m still really missing several recipes from “Po’ Folks” (later “Folks’ Southern Kitchen”), an Atlanta-area chain that went out of business about a decade ago. Specifically, the squash casserole, ranch dressing, and peach muffins. (I also miss the fried chicken tenders and fried green tomatoes, but those aren’t quite as hard to guess at.)
Peach muffins sound like heaven. I’m looking for recipes now. Sometimes Facebook groups are useful for stuff like this.
They were so good that the restaurant sold bagged mix so you could make them yourself at home.
As for finding the recipes, unfortunately, I refuse to use Facebook.
No, but I’ll search Facebook. Sometimes local groups have good answers for stuff like this is all.
I don’t see a photo and I am curious about the recipe.
I’m sorry, it showed as attached for me.
The trick with the dressing is go heavy on the vinegar and oregano, and if you can find Gem olive oil that’s the best kind.
So… What are the ingredients?
This is dressing. Add a shot of the pickled beet juice, and go heavy on the vinegar and oregano.
This is the ingredients.
the owner would tell you to hurry up and finish your meal
Isn’t that a thing in American restaurants in general? Always got the impression from online discourse that if you’re not eating or giving tips you’re basically trespassing lol
Depends on where and what kind of place. There’s a Taqueria near me run by a handful of older hispanic ladies and if it’s slow and you ask about/try the less mainstream stuff they’ll keep bringing out the random bits they’re working on to see what you think. “You liked the hot red sauce? Try this green one we make. Did you like the cow tongue tacos? We made fresh chorizo today, try it.” (I learned real chorizo uses cow salivary glands. Or they were enjoying freaking people out with that story. Either way, tasty)
There’s a Columbian place like this near me. While waiting on my order, the abuelitas will hand me stuff to try. They barely speak English and I barely speak Spanish.
I probably would not have been too keen to try a tequeyoyo if I knew it was a fried cheese stick with sweet plantains, but I couldn’t turn down free food from the nice abuelita.
Now I always have to bring home a few.
