Tucked away in the valley of Los Angeles is a little café and pizzeria adorned with fairy lights and a sense of magic in the air. Caioti, it’s called. But the quaint café produces more than just California pizza. It’s also famous for The Salad.
Made with romaine, watercress, walnuts and gorgonzola, topped with balsamic vinaigrette, it is rumoured to have a mystical power… one that can induce labour…
Owner, Carrie Ladou, explains, “28 years ago a pregnant lady came in and ate the salad and started having contractions. So this has become part of pop culture.”
“We have anywhere from 5 to 20 pregnant ladies a day come in and order The Salad.”
“We have lots of tired-looking men come in and get it to-go.”
She continues, “We’ve never made any claims, but our customers tell us that it works.”
Did you try anything specific to induce labour when you were pregnant? Did it work? Send your story to chatback@parent24.com and we may publish it.
“The baby is super comfortable, not interested in coming out. So I went to get the famous salad,” explains one mom. “I had the baby right after that. The salad works.”
Another said, “I ate the salad and it was actually very delicious. And then, about 6 hours later, I started getting slight contractions and then it got pretty intense…”
And celeb moms have tried it to. Hilary Duff, who is pregnant with her second child, posted an image of the salad on Snapchat saying, “This salad is supposed to make you go into labour… @caioti_pizza don’t let me down.”
- Also read: Induction of labour
The funny thing about the salad, there are no sprinklings of crushed up labour inducing pills garnishing the salad, we don’t see any pineapple and a genie doesn’t grant you a wish in the form of a magical salad either. The salad is actually pretty basic. The key could be in its unique balsamic vinaigrette though.
The vinaigrette contains crumbled sun-dried tomatoes and a special mix of herb and spices. So quite often women just come in to take a shot of dressing.
Customers always sign the salad book in the restaurant, and hanging on the wall is a black board full of names of customers who have had “salad babies” just hours after eating the dish.
We have yet to personally try the salad and test it's magical powers, but we've heard eating pineapple helps and know for sure that getting a massage and doing particular exercises like squatting or simply brisk walking can induce labour.
Read more about it here: Labour inducing exercises
For more on labour, click here:
- How to know labour is about to start
- This doctor gets women dancing when they go into labour
- Bring on the drugs! Pain relief options in childbirth
Did you try anything specific to induce labour when you were pregnant? Did it work? Send your story to chatback@parent24.com and we may publish it.
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