It takes a lot to make a great salad. A will disagree - he will say that salad is the food that his food eats. I had a great salad recently. It was made of fresh, farm-to-table, locally grown produce, mixed in the right ratios of veg to protein to other tasty ingredients. The dressing was the right balance of acid, creaminess, saltiness, and sweetness. It was also like a $12 salad, which is much too expensive for me to be eating regularly. It's also not realistic to be eating great food everyday. I can settle for good, solid, reliable, but not great. And that's pretty much the standard I hold for salad kits - reliable, moderately tasty, and gets the job done.
This is a newer variety that I tried last month. What is za'atar tango? Za'atar, I assume, is the spice blend, and tango is a kind of lettuce. It is so American to take values of Middle Eastern cuisine (I'm referring to the emphasis on using fresh seasonal produce and flavorful herbs/spices) and package it into a salad kit for convenience. But it's for me. Because when do I have time to wash and dry lettuce and herbs and chop everything into little pieces for a delicious fresh salad, every single time I want to eat?
Textural variety is a must - it compensates for the limited freshness of a bagged salad (limited in the sense that the threshold of freshness is much lower compared to a farm-to-table situation).
I try not to buy salad kits too often. Salads are easy to make, but the kits are just too convenient for when I'm super busy. But I don't love the amount of plastic waste from the packaging. Most of the ingredient list is in the dressing and in the little flatbread strips. Not too bad.
1. I ate the entire bagged salad for lunch, which probably meant that I was hungry and that this salad kit was pretty delicious.
2. The lettuce mixture is very pleasant - it's leafy and fibrous and "healthy tasting" without any bitterness. There's also a lot of it - it seems to double or triple in volume when you open the actual bag. I would assume the frilliest leaves are the tango lettuce, and it does add a nice crisp texture that makes the overall salad taste and feel more fresh.
3. Salad kit add-ins are usually tiny and somewhat sad. They get usually get overwhelmed by the greens and get lost in the salad. Nevertheless, I appreciate the thought that has gone into the add-in selection. The sesame seeds a bit gratuitous (they're also not toasted), but I get it - they're going for a Middle Eastern/Mediterranean feel. The dates add just the right amount of sweetness. The flatbread strips are actually seasoned decently with what is supposed to be za'tar but they are puny. The pistachios add a nuttiness and a nice crunch along with the flatbread strips. These are all things that matter to me in a salad. If I'm going to eat a salad, it must have crunch so I feel like I'm eating something substantial.
4. I really like this cucumber yogurt dressing. It's definitely a dressing that I would buy if it came bottled. It's cool, tangy, drizzly with a bit of creaminess, and seasoned well with sumac and lemon.
5. $3.99 for this salad kit. Adding a protein would make this a complete meal that justifies the price. It's one of the better salad kits Trader Joe's has ever produced. :P
TL;DR: Trader Joe's A Za'atar Tango Salad Kit. Texturally interesting with a nice balance of flavors - a salad worth eating. 9 out of 10. Mantou Joe repurchase? If I ever see it back in the stores, yes!
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