webofevil | Try everything once, except this

A while ago the Commons cafeteria, after much lobbying from its patrons, changed the way it ran its salad bar. Instead of only offering the canteen’s own concoctions, it now offers salad ingredients separately as well, such as cucumber, slices of pepper, tomatoes etc. This was roundly welcomed as a positive development.

Recently they were offering a salad I had never previously encountered: olive, orange and radish—that is, slices of all three. I had to try it out of sheer curiosity, and although your initial reaction was probably that that’s a hugely unlikely combination which sounds like it might be quite unpleasant, you’d actually be far wide of the mark; in fact, it was utterly disgusting. I’m inclined to agree with my colleague who suggested that it was probably the result of some accident backstage rather than one of the chefs deciding to go all Hesther Blumenthal on us, but either way I’m beginning to understand the relief that generally greeted the “separate ingredients” policy.