It casts the same spell as pizza. You'd have a hard time finding someone who doesn't really enjoy it. It even works on people who don't generally like salads.
I don't like it. I like salads that have tasty, fresh, delicious vegetables (and often fruits and/or nuts) where the dressing just adds some pizazz and tartness.
To me caesar salad is just dressing where the lettuce is only there to act as scaffolding.
Agreed. The things with "salad" in the name that I've gotten at Mediterranean restaurants have been delicious combinations of multiple ingredients. The things with "salad" in the name that I've gotten at American restaurants have been bowls of lettuce with a few other things thrown in.
I make my Caesar with kale and arugula, shave broccoli with a peeler then roast them, and add pine nuts plus roasted garlic lemon chickpeas in addition to croutons for even more and healthier crunch. It’s also delicious with just oil.
This is exactly why I love Cesar salads. I have always disliked vegetables, trying many times in my life to eat them more because that's what health "experts" say we need to do.
I don't like vegetables fresh, I don't like them grilled, I don't like them stewed.
Cover them in Cesar dressing tho and I can eat an extra large salad (hopefully with some protein too).
That's an incredibly American take IMO. Pizza is loved worldwide... Caesar salad?! Where are the famous Caesar salad global chains? I don't think it's much of a thing in Europe, at least.
I don't think that was the point the comment was trying to make. Like - it's easy to stand on a street corner and eat a slice of pizza (or grab one and run!), it's much harder to eat dressed leaves.
I read their point as being: the first time you try pizza you're like "this is delicious and amazing." The first time you try Caesar salad it lights you up in the same magical way.
I could be wrong of course - but that definitely fits my own experience. The first time I had a chicken CS as a kid in a restaurant, it was all I wanted to eat every time we went out for months afterwards. I genuinely couldn't believe 'salad' could be so delicious.
It is precisely a salad for people who don't generally eat salads.
The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
Croutons are recognizable from a distance as a non vegetable ingredient, making it attractive to someone who'd rather not eat vegetables at all. To me they're just stale bread.
I'd think that peoples' main objection to salad is the uncooked veggies, which isn't addressed at all with caesar salad. I don't generally trust raw vegetables to not make me sick. Especially in the US.
> The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
You just have to go to any place where dairy isn't part of the typical diet and people don't usually like either on first exposure. Cheese is an acquired taste for sure, we just live in a place where nearly everyone has acquired it. Not a global norm, however.
From TFA: While the exact original recipe is no longer offered – today, the dressing uses Worcestershire, anchovies, Tabasco and lemon along with roasted and raw garlic – foodies still flock to Caesar’s Restaurants to get the original tableside show.
I make a great Caesar and the secret is a lot of anchovy. Even people who claim to hate anchovies love it and are surprised when I tell them how much I add.
One tube of anchovy paste, one tin of anchovy filets (chopped), fresh pressed garlic, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire, hot sauce, parmesan, black pepper, and olive oil.
The first chicken Caesar salad I ever had was, I believe, at Metro Grill during the summer of 2006. I was not (and still am not) much of a salad fan, but that was the salad that made me say "maybe I can learn to like salad."
Good salad is delicious. I think more people would realize that if they weren't exposed to nothing but iceberg, cheddar, and ranch monstrosities during childhood.
Standing up here for iceberg, I think a proper wedge with blue cheese and bacon is delicious. The crispness is refreshing. Not as nutritional as other salads, but sure goes well with a steak and a martini.
Hint - it existed long before they claim it did. I have found similar recipes for dressing going back hundreds of years.
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
A classic Caesar uses whole leaves; the dish was originally meant to be eaten with hands. You can have whatever preferences you like, but I don't think the attitude you're expressing it with is helpful.
Sure, the enjoyment of food involves etiquette and aesthetics. When I learned to cook (from my mom), she said that a knife should never enter the salad plate, and if it does, the cook should be embarrassed.
Of course I'm influenced by that lesson, even though it's perfectly arbitrary and I don't always follow it myself, nor do I complain if it's not strictly adhered to.
I'm curious about these similar dressing recipes as I've found nothing similar enough to call them the same thing.
I've seen plenty of anchovy/mustard/aioli dressings that one might call predecessors, but they lack the egg yolks, parmigiano reggiano and Worcestershire sauce, so they would not taste like Caesar salad dressing.
> surprisingly, it doesn’t involve a certain Roman emperor.
Not surprising at all. Modern historians regard Augustus as the first emperor, whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic.
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To me caesar salad is just dressing where the lettuce is only there to act as scaffolding.
I don't like vegetables fresh, I don't like them grilled, I don't like them stewed.
Cover them in Cesar dressing tho and I can eat an extra large salad (hopefully with some protein too).
I read their point as being: the first time you try pizza you're like "this is delicious and amazing." The first time you try Caesar salad it lights you up in the same magical way.
I could be wrong of course - but that definitely fits my own experience. The first time I had a chicken CS as a kid in a restaurant, it was all I wanted to eat every time we went out for months afterwards. I genuinely couldn't believe 'salad' could be so delicious.
The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
Croutons are recognizable from a distance as a non vegetable ingredient, making it attractive to someone who'd rather not eat vegetables at all. To me they're just stale bread.
> The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
What does this sentence even mean?
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Tabasco is an interesting twist I’m going to have to try
Also raw eggs not mayo, and garlic in the oil for a while before making it.
... that can turn bland to grand.-
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
research in our historical archives backs up your claim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNc4EszNWn8
Of course I'm influenced by that lesson, even though it's perfectly arbitrary and I don't always follow it myself, nor do I complain if it's not strictly adhered to.
I've seen plenty of anchovy/mustard/aioli dressings that one might call predecessors, but they lack the egg yolks, parmigiano reggiano and Worcestershire sauce, so they would not taste like Caesar salad dressing.
Please share.
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Not surprising at all. Modern historians regard Augustus as the first emperor, whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic.