Salad bar etiquette has always been a tricky one. Do you piously take a few leaves and a scatter of croutons while secretly yearning for a bowl of hard-boiled eggs caked in sweetcorn and seafood sauce?
Or do you put that architectural degree to use and build one of these rather stunning salad towers?
Salad stacking - as it is know – is said to have originated in China, where Pizza Hut customers decided to make that single visit to the salad bar count, dammnit.
Scroll down for a slideshow of staggering salad stacking
Experts recommend using a base of carrots for a stable foundation
Despite the creativity and time which invariably went into these structures, their reign was cut short when Pizza Hut reportedly announced in 2009 it was set to remove all self-service salad bars in China’s 440 restaurants – precisely because of these “Scooby snack-style” antics.
“Salad stacking has become somewhat of an art form, with ingenious engineers exchanging tips online, such as having a base of carrots for a stable foundation. I think the smart move for Pizza Hut would have been to reduce the size of the salad plate to roughly the diameter of a tomato slice. Then only the most talented stackers could take any more than their fair share.”
Nevertheless, earlier this month Japanese site LabaQ resurrected some of the more creative plates we’ve seen, and Kotaku’s Beijing based correspondent reports there are still salad bars in a Pizza Hut near him… could the mighty salad towers of China be set for a return?
