The New Eagle has landed

Behold, the beautiful and versatile salad. From farm-fresh mixed greens to those of fancy fruits, and ones with noodles to those laden with creams — even some with Southern-style fried things — salads are a rare breed of cuisine quite chameleon-like in character.

The sweet-toothed among us are sure to sprint toward the fruit salads — more common than not, those swathed with sugary syrups or whipped wonders on top. For salt-and-carb-lovers, there are endless pasta salads poised to scratch that sodium and gluten-infused itch you need scratching. There are even those Bubba-and-Kimo-approved offerings of the potato persuasion — those “salads” slathered in shoyu or mayo — and quite missing one single morsel of anything green!

Spinach Salad ($9.95)

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Ask anyone, and they will admit, the single most important factor to any culinary creation is the freshness and quality of the ingredients themselves. And no other dish is so dependent on onomatopoeia than a salad. That telltale “crunch” of crisp lettuce and greenery is exactly what I want to hear when taking that initial bite.

And how about just the right toppings for texture and taste? And don’t get me started on dressing — too little and you’re all dried up — too much and you’re practically drowning. It’s a precarious and persnickety science, this salad making.

Lucky for us, New Eagle Cafe knows just what it takes to make a salad sing, and owner Tae Im will have you know they ain’t “skeered” to serve ‘em up side-by-side. Take these tossed temptations, for instance:

New Eagle Cafe’s Spinach Salad ($9.95) is a delicious selection of spinach with strawberries, walnuts, bits of bacon (vegetarians, simply let your server know to remove these) and sweet sesame vinaigrette dressing. This fresh dish is by far the eatery’s “most popular dish among vegetarians,” says Im. “It’s the homemade sesame vinaigrette that really sets it apart.”

Not to be upstaged is Caesar Salad ($9.25) featuring romaine lettuce, grated Parmesan cheese, croutons and classic Caesar dressing.

After sampling these scrumptious salads, it’s safe to say that in the realm of green cuisine, this eagle has landed.

New Eagle Cafe

1130 N. Nimitz Hwy., Honolulu
545-2233
Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Friday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.
Saturday, 6 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sunday, 6 a.m.-9 p.m.
neweaglecafehawaii.com