Self-control, willpower, masochistic impulses brought on by those H&M bathing suit ads on all the telephone booths--however you want to explain it, I've been mostly sticking to my mostly salad diet this past week. I'm like a rabbit--a rabbit who has a Seamless account, an endless appetite for Diet Coke, and a drive to one day look good in a bikini.
I attribute the success of my herbivorous ways to two factors: 1) I consider the "lamb on salad" option from the Halal truck outside my office to be within the terms of my diet and 2) Mangia.
In my experience, Mangia's salads are always fresh, reliably entre-sized, filling enough to actually constitute a meal, and rank somewhere between pretty tasty and delicious, even when you're getting really tired of eating like an animal with a much smaller brain. They also stand-out, to me, because they fall on the higher-brow end of the Seamless salad spectrum. Whether or not Mangia's ingredients are actually top quality, they are described in terms that make your order feel a little more epicurean, a little less sad-rabbit-woman eating in front of her computer. Definitely recommended for anyone who likes to name-drop "French lentils" during the work day.
Most importantly, Mangia prepares that special kind of salad that seems to entitle you to un-salad-like indulgences, i.e. goat cheese, fried chicken. Although I haven't actually caved to the fried chicken yet, my favorite is Mangia's spinach salad, which, in a beautiful feat of culinary alchemy, takes strips of bacon, places them on a fresh bed of raw spinach, flanks them with hard boiled eggs and carmelized shallots, and magically transforms them from a forbidden carnal sin into the Noble Prize winner of Macronutrients, Protein! An important source of . . . anyways, don't worry about it, its hanging out with spinach and its good for you.
Here at Big Firm we're fans of the Mangia spinach salad--dubbed by my officemate as "the best smelling salad I've ever smelled" thanks to the carmelized shallots-- as well as the Cesear. The tri-color and seared tuna salads are perfectly acceptable, but do not live up to the menu's gourmet vocabulary, according to my sources.
Speed: As advertised
Civilizing Factor: Gourmetish ingredients, neat presentation
Cost: Eh
Remember to tip your delivery person!
