Salad bar, a lunch experience

Initially published on 24/05/2011

I usually bring food from home at work (not in matpakke paper which is a waste but in a plastic box). Not something I prepared on purpose but leftovers from the day before's dinner. Yep, inFrance, every meal is "middag", as I understood it meant "warm meal".

I think I just found where I would buy my lunch in case of "no leftovers":

Coop and Ica in Tromsø sentrum offer "salad bar". You take a (throwable plastic) box, fill it with whatever you like and then pay the price per (kilo)gram. The more you fill, the more you pay.

It's 129 kr per kilo at Coop (the one by Stortorget) and 119 at Ica. Cheaper then, but not that different. The food is basically the same: paprika, pasta salad, corn, cucumber, ham cubes, feta (Oh yeah!!:)) and so on.

The advantage when you are not a big eater is that you really eat what you want. I paid 30 kr which I think is quite cheap (I don't have a big appetite and buffet were never worth it for me). Last time I bought a sandwich I couldn't even finish it! So this may be the best solution for me.

The fact that it is healthy is a bonus too.

However I know it would be better to buy locally-grown vegetables (I prefer that rather than an organic paprika from argentina), but this is really really hard to put into practise in Norway. Maybe at the next farmer market on June 18th?

The other drawback I see with the salad bar is the use of plastic box. But the solution is to reuse the same box several times (=zero waste). You would have to wash it anyway to recycle it (they ask for it at least in Tromsø) and if you wash it with COLD water it is still the most ecological solution. Not true anymore with hot water; plus, it is never recommended to wash plastic with hot water. It "opens" the plastic and make the fat in it.

All of this to say that reuse the same box they sell is much more discreet than bringing your own packaging: reused ziplock for example, or a reusable plastic box. But since you pay the weight, packaging included... This is another good reasons to chose the smallest (throwable) box what you need can fit in it. How much plastic did I pay today among my 240grams? I wanted to reuse my small box from Coop but they don't have it at Ica (and I thought it would look suspicious), so I took the huge one. So maybe Coop is cheaper after all.

Another solution, share a big box with a colleague (if you have the same tastes).

To sum up: tasty, healthy, and ecological enough (if I reuse the box) for lunch. Adopted!

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