Roanoke Times photographer Stephanie Klein-Davis sends me e-mails on a regular basis with story ideas about food, cooking or traveling. Like me, she seems to have one of those topics on the brain at all times.

Yesterday, she sent me an idea that piqued my interest immediately. Where are the best salads in Roanoke and the New River Valley?

Obviously, if you’ve got the freshest ingredients at home, then perhaps that most delicious salad is on your own dining room table. But if you are too hot or tired to make dinner yourself, where do you go for a great salad when you’ve really got the hankering?

Restaurant salads don’t have to be healthy. In fact, much of the time, they are not — particularly if they are loaded down with fried chicken tenders, cheese, egg, bacon and all that good stuff. But for the purpose of this blog question, let’s throw healthy right out the window in favor of delicious.

I can think of two of my favorite salads right off the bat.

Read more »