Essentials: Spring Salad, Hy-Vee
A salad that belongs to no season
The Midwestern version of the Horn of Plenty might be the cold salad case at the Hy-Vee deli. Every day, employees of the Iowa-minted grocery chain fill melamine bowls with mayonnaise-slicked salads until the whole case shines like a monochromatic city on a carbohydrate hill. The king of that hill is “spring salad,” a salad that belongs to no season. Sure, it has crunchy coins of carrot and bell pepper and celery, but the raison d’eating is a pitcher’s mound of chubby pasta shells drunk on a slightly sweet, slightly tangy, entirely creamy dressing. Spring salad isn’t fashionable. It doesn’t have to be. It’s a chemically perfect dish: salt, fat, acid, sweet. —Liz Cook
Liz Cook is a Kansas City-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in The Pitch, Bon Appétit, Eater, and The Kansas City Star. She also writes the experimental food newsletter Haterade.
Kevin Necessary is a freelance illustrator and editorial cartoonist. He is currently the editorial cartoonist for The Cincinnati Enquirer. His cartoons are syndicated by GoComics, and his cartoons have been published in a variety of publications such as The Week and Politico. A Cincinnati native, Kevin will fight to the death defending Cincinnati chili. He lives with his wife, Julie, and three cats, Huckleberry, Grayson, and Bonnie.