Such a plain sad little salad. He's not even trying.
The sort of thing you make for yourself when you're slumming and totally over it.
But on Tuesday I have a special guest and that means a special salad. My impulse is to get carried away.
* red bell pepper seared on one side to create burn spots.
* avocado
* black olives from the bar not from a tin or a jar
* cucumber
* maybe watermelon
* thick cut applewood bacon
* mushrooms
* toasted croutons
* roasted pecans
* heriloom tomatoes
* possibly apple
* bib lettuce
See the restraint? I'm leaving out artichoke hearts and those stupid ass hearts of palm, omitting fresh water chestnuts, no bean sprouts, no anchovy. No carrots, or black beans, no chickpeas, no kale or celery. No onions, or Mandarin oranges. No corn. No potato. No strawberries or blueberries or cranberries or raisins. No pepperoni or pepperoncini or jalapeño. No shrimp, grapes beets or peas. No cabbage, no pasta, no arugula. No kiwi fruit and no mango. No grapefruit. No tuna or radish or daikon. No watercress. No egg or chicken. No cantaloupe, spinach or pickles or pineapple. Much more is omitted than included, so yeah, I get carried away but not totally carried away.
9 comments:
I've been on a blue cheese thing for a while, and I also add crumbled blue cheese for more uumph.
The trick with blue cheese is pairing it with things that go well with blue cheese. That is why a Cobb salad is so good. It has blue cheese, bacon an egg. They go well together and with the rest of the veggies.
It is very old school doing a iceberg lettuce wedge with blue cheese. Just because it is old school, doesn't mean it is worth redoing. Iceberg was popular post war since it was the only lettuce in the winter that could survive a train trip from California to the east coast (if only the East of Eden characters timed that right). A colorless flavorless lettuce is just a medium for holding blue cheese dressing. Not terrible, but you can do better.
Smithsonian did an article on it!
Smithsonian mentions crunch, an attractive quality, but they didn't mention infusoria.
Aquariumistsxxxxxx aquariumitesxxxxxxx aquariumersxxxxxxx aquarium hobbyists use iceberg lettuce to culture infusoria to feed fry. It's good for their itty-bitty teeny-weenie baby fish mouths.
Here's how they do it. They break off a leaf of iceberg lettuce and put it in a jar of water. Next day BOOM infusoria all over the place. Then they pour some of the iceberg lettuce water into the fish tank and BOOM the newborn fish are fed.
Folate helps prevent child birth defects.
Very interesting! Maybe infusoria is incredibly delicious. If baby fish like it, I wonder what it tastes like?
We had queso de Cabrales (Spanish blue cheese) with our dinner in the provice on Asturias Spain. It was so frigging strong I had to leave my chair and stand outside for a few minutes.
Not at all like what we buy at Safeway.
Unrelated reactions:
- I disagree about this being a lousy salad. I love a wedge salad, especially with an artic-cold Martini. My Martinis have bleu-cheese-stuffed olives, so it all fits nicely. A great prelude to a steak (I read that post already).
- That said, I think this salad needs bacon.
- The narrator -- whose videos I have watched before -- has a sing-songy way of talking that drives me crazy. There's a priest in my diocese who has a similar voice.
- I also disagree about heart of palm; it's delicious. Somewhere I found a recipe for salad using heart of palm, avocado and toasted walnuts. I haven't made it for awhile; I may not be able to find the recipe again. The problem with heart of palm is buying it. The last time I looked for it at the humongous grocery store near me, it wasn't there. I suspect I was about the only person buying it. They would probably order it for me if I asked.
I've only had hearts of palm in tins. Once. Put me off permanently. There are probably better versions. The Asian markets have real versions of things, real bamboo sprouts (they're huge) and real water chestnuts (pain in the butt to peel) and those things are a lot better than the tinned versions.
Chip:
It also occurs to me that you may have higher standards than I do in some of these things. Lest there be any misunderstanding, that is meant as entirely a compliment with no veiled meaning.
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