L.A.'s Best Salads

This can't be what the clandestine and cloaked group of food lovers had in mind when they chose May as National Salad Month. When you think of salads, you think of a healthy meal, a bowl with a whole lot of lettuce, perhaps a few tomatoes, some cucumbers, maybe a crouton or two, and lightly dabbled with a low-fat dressing. A meal that won't make you spend the rest of day self-loathing and full of regret about how many calories you digested, in other words. Which is all well and good. But it's also extremely boring. So today, on our chosen day of salad celebration, we're loading up with a gallery of some of our favorite among the more exotic salad offerings in L.A. What are your favorite salads?

[The Mediterranean Octopus Salad from downtown L.A.'s Cafe Pinot. Photo by Flickr user prayitno.]

[Photo of the Mango Salad, with cashews, shrimp, dried coconut, onions and garlic, from Jitlada Thai in Hollywood. Photo by Flickr user The Delicious Life.]

[The Morning Glory salad, also from Jitlada Thai in Hollywood. Photo by Flickr user arnold | inuyaki.]

[The Island Farmer's Market salad, with shaved Maui onions, fried tofu, fried garlic, seasonal fruit, from A-Frame in Culver City. Photo by Flickr user KayOne73.]

[The chicken and apple salad with bacon from downtown L.A.'s Cabbage Patch. Photo by Flickr user KayOne73.]

[A classic: Caesar salad from the Angeli Caffe (now closed, unfortunately) pop-up in downtown L.A. Photo by Flickr user djjewelz.]

[The Peruvian corn salad from downtown L.A.'s Mo-chica. Photo by Flickr user KayOne73.]

[The leek salad from Santa Monica's Santouka Ramen. Photo by Flickr user Ron Dollete.]

Tangerine and baby red carrot salad with dandelion greens, olives, feta and ginger dressing at Forage in Silver Lake.

[The shaved asparagus salad, with strawberry, pine nuts, pecorino and caramelized shallot vinaigrette, from West L.A.'s The Six Restaurant. Photo by Flickr user Muy Yum.]