If you know me, then you know me and salads aren’t best friends. My mom used to make fun of me because I would “hate eat” salads, which is me shoving leafy greens and vegetables into my face without dressing just so I would get my fiber and vitamins and make my stomach full so I don’t over eat my meals food. So, when I got the opportunity to try Via Stelle, I was a little bit apprehensive but of course, I enjoy eating (like most women) and I’m always up for trying new foods.
About Via Stelle
Via Stelle is a food-tech startup that provides gourmet food put into a Chef-bowl, designed for the perfect office lunch or dinner, which is great for busy, young professionals. All Via Stelle’s food, not only the salads, are recipes from high-class chefs from all over the world.
Basically, in easy terms, if you’re feeling fancy and need something quick and healthy, Via Stelle is what you’re looking for.
I have an office job, which makes it hard to get healthy food on a whim. If I don't have an opportunity to cook, I have to depend on what's around me. In my office building alone, there's numerous tempting fast food places and convenient stores where it's easy to pick up a microwave meal with God knows what, not including the food stores around the corner and tempting burger joints just a few stations away (Shake Shack anyone?)
Yes, of course there's waimai (food delivery service for my non-Chinese speaking buddies/ FOP (fresh off the plane) wai guo ren (foreigners)) but sometimes it’s hard to get food fast during the busy lunch time hours. So, this was perfect for me, especially when I am working hard and too focused to order food before noon, and of course, not distracted by WeChat messages.
I tried three salads: Guaca Hola, Green Earth, and Salmonster. At the time, I was also tracking my macro nutrients (carbs, fats, and proteins) or macros for the cool nutrition kids. I thought Via Stelle was amazing for this because it gives you all the nutritional information and the ingredients, just by scanning the QR Code on their packaging. So as an office-to-gym kind of person who needs to know how I'm fueling your body, this was great.
A quick note: In terms of the nutrition of each salad, I felt that the fat content was quite high so I didn't use all the dressing in each salad. Plus, I don't like dressing usually so it wasn't hard to add only a little bit for flavor.
The first salad I tried was the Guaca Hola
Here are the ingredients
They also list the ingredients on their packaging, so at least you have a visual of what you're getting
And nutrition
I really liked the spiciness and the crunchiness; it was a great mix of textures and flavors. It also had tasty, seasoned shrimp. Super Yum! For this one the red wine vinegrette was seemed that it would be weird with the ingredients of the salad but it really tasted great!
Two days later, I tried the Green Earth, which was my absolute favorite (and apparently everyone’s favorite because it’s sold out as I write this…)
Ingredients
Nutrition
You can never go wrong with Pesto and Chicken. Also, as I mentioned, I’m not a big fan of salad. But, in my crazy brain, salad means lettuce and some other vegetables without dressing because why put the extra fat in something I’m hate eating anyway.
But, Via Stelle tricked me by adding some quinoa in their Green Earth salad and the pesto dressing REALLY made everything come together.
The last salad I had was the Salmonster,
Ingredients
and Nutrition:
The salad also traveled quite well as that I needed to take a flight that day, and it WAY healthier than the airline mystery meat and excess carbs. Again, a bit of a strange conversation with salmon and nuts and I'm not huge fan of Kale but everything paired well together.
So, in conclusion:
Pros:
-All ingredients and nutrition information listed on the website
-Filling
-delicious AND nutritious
-NOT only lettuce leaves, vegetables, and dressing
-Savior from Airplane food, microwave meals, and french fries (...which are delicious and tempting)
-From view Via Stelle's website, there are vegan and vegetarian options as well
Cons:
-Dressing makes Fat content a bit high
For those of you living in Shanghai, and want something quick and healthy, I would definitely recommend Via Stelle. If you’re not really a salad person, they also have some other meals you can taste on one of your busy workdays.
If you want to try a Via Stelle Salad or any other meal, Here’s the QR code for 20 RMB off! Obviously only for people in China... Unless you want to visit me! :D
Happy Eating! What other foods or salads should I try?
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