100 Favorite Dishes: Punch's chopped Italian salad

As a countdown to the Best of the Twin Cities 2010, coming this spring, Hot Dish is serving up a hundred of our favorite local dishes. Send your own nominations to hotdish @citypages.com.

No. 68: Punch's chopped Italian salad

Sharing's fun and nice and all, but to avoid some serious silverware-related injury you might be best off just getting your own when it comes to Punch's chopped Italian salad. The salad comes in "half" and "whole" sizes, but even the moon-like expanse of the serving dish for the larger one won't keep you from diving across enemy lines--fork tines poised menacingly--after choice bites of the salad's various meats, cheeses, and veggies. The plentiful salad comes with cayenne salami, Black Forest ham, and little twists of baked, ruby-red prosciutto that's tender like jerky (but like 10,000 times better), mixed in with soft pieces of fontina and gorgonzola, garbanzos, carrots, and cherry tomatoes--all tasty little treasures nestled in a sea of crisp, mixed greens and accompanied by a few wedges of olive oil and rosemary-sprinkled pizza crust. Watch dem hands, peeps!

Hungry for more? The dishes in our countdown thus far are linked below:

No. 100: Volcano Salad at Tiger Sushi
No. 99: Eclair at Butter
No. 98: Moussaka at Gardens of Salonica
No. 97: "Flappers" at Colossal Cafe
No. 96: Bento Box at Obento-Ya
No. 95: Sausage, salami, onion, and green olive pizza at Black Sheep
No. 94: Crab Cake at the Kitchen
No. 93: Passion fruit cake at Pardon My French
No. 92: Kafé 421 Signature Dips
No. 91: Lutefisk at Landmarc Grill
No. 90: May Day Cafe Croissant
No. 89: Dowjic at Babani's
No. 88: Osso Bucco at the Modern Cafe
No. 87: Chef Shack Hot Dog
No. 86: Adult Mac & Cheese at Good Day Cafe
No. 85: Ropa Vieja at Victor's
No. 84: French Toast of the Dead at Chino Latino
No. 83: Uni at Origami
No. 82: Bagel at Common Roots
No. 81: Jasmine Deli's bánh mì
No. 80: Pho 79's bò cuốn lá nho
No. 79: Sweets Bakeshop's Kettlecorn Cupcake
No. 78: D'Amico Kitchen's Chicory Salad
No. 77: Be'wiched Deli pastrami sandwich
No. 76: La Grassa's lima bean appetizer
No. 75: Bulldog NE Tater Tots
No. 74: Pop's Swedish Meatballs
No. 73: Hot Plate's Caramel Apple French Toast
No. 72: Grand Cafe's Ham and Cheese
No. 71: Galactic Pizza's Thailander
No. 70: Jackson's milk chocolate gelatoNo. 69: Patrick's Bakery and Cafe's tiramisu