Lettuce is one of those vegetables, I struggle to appreciate. I'm sure it has value, its green so that means its got nutrients.... right? didn't we learn about that in grade six science?
The thing with lettuce, is its sort of under the radar in terms of taste. There really is not alot of it. And then theres the texture. Its almost anti-climactic. It can be crunchy, but under the wrong conditions, it goes soggy. I don't like soggy vegetables. I know, its weird. Not to say I don't like cooked vegetables, but I don't like it when a vegetable is meant to remain crisp, becomes soggy and gross.
Let me explain.
Lettuce for example, is one of those vegetables that needs to be crisp. When heat is applied to it, it acquires this rather disgusting, slimy texture. It becomes limp and lazy, you can see through it. When you dare to bite into it, when it is in this undesirable state, its anti-climactic, it has no crunch, it sort of just slides out of whatever you are eating. Gross.
Nachos are the perfect example of a dish to avoid using lettuce. You take chips, cover them with cheese, and assorted other things, heat them up, and voila...crunchy food.... for the most part. Add lettuce to this mixture and you have these globs of green sliding all over the place. Just wrong.....(and as a side note...does anyone know why people use shredded lettuce on nachos? I don't get it, and its one of my biggest pet peeves....again, weird, I know.)
The ironic example, perhaps an exception to my rule, is lettuce and chicken in a salad. If the chicken is not too hot when you add it to the salad, it doesn't have the opportunity to change the crispness of the lettuce. For some reason it doesn't always go soggy. Maybe its the dressing that cools it down, who knows the physics of it, I was an arts major...... I just know it doesn't always go gross.
When I was travelling this fall, I tried a Cobb Salad. I eat a lot of salad but usually not with lettuce. It is a rare occassion when I try a lettuce salad with some sort of hot item in it, namely meat. But I tried this one and I liked it. For the uninitiated, a Cobb salad, has romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs chopped up, pieces of bacon, pieces of chicken, avocado, tomato, chives, chunks of blue cheese, covered in a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard. (I know this only because I looked it up after I got home, and have spent the last few months experimenting with my own versions of it.) I'm guessing this salad is not very good for you, given the amount of protein and fat, but its yummy just the same. And my discovery of this dish, has made me a hypocrite to my own code on lettuce. Celebrate my food hypocrisy and try this one, its really good.
The thing with lettuce, is its sort of under the radar in terms of taste. There really is not alot of it. And then theres the texture. Its almost anti-climactic. It can be crunchy, but under the wrong conditions, it goes soggy. I don't like soggy vegetables. I know, its weird. Not to say I don't like cooked vegetables, but I don't like it when a vegetable is meant to remain crisp, becomes soggy and gross.
Let me explain.
Lettuce for example, is one of those vegetables that needs to be crisp. When heat is applied to it, it acquires this rather disgusting, slimy texture. It becomes limp and lazy, you can see through it. When you dare to bite into it, when it is in this undesirable state, its anti-climactic, it has no crunch, it sort of just slides out of whatever you are eating. Gross.
Nachos are the perfect example of a dish to avoid using lettuce. You take chips, cover them with cheese, and assorted other things, heat them up, and voila...crunchy food.... for the most part. Add lettuce to this mixture and you have these globs of green sliding all over the place. Just wrong.....(and as a side note...does anyone know why people use shredded lettuce on nachos? I don't get it, and its one of my biggest pet peeves....again, weird, I know.)
The ironic example, perhaps an exception to my rule, is lettuce and chicken in a salad. If the chicken is not too hot when you add it to the salad, it doesn't have the opportunity to change the crispness of the lettuce. For some reason it doesn't always go soggy. Maybe its the dressing that cools it down, who knows the physics of it, I was an arts major...... I just know it doesn't always go gross.
When I was travelling this fall, I tried a Cobb Salad. I eat a lot of salad but usually not with lettuce. It is a rare occassion when I try a lettuce salad with some sort of hot item in it, namely meat. But I tried this one and I liked it. For the uninitiated, a Cobb salad, has romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs chopped up, pieces of bacon, pieces of chicken, avocado, tomato, chives, chunks of blue cheese, covered in a dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dijon mustard. (I know this only because I looked it up after I got home, and have spent the last few months experimenting with my own versions of it.) I'm guessing this salad is not very good for you, given the amount of protein and fat, but its yummy just the same. And my discovery of this dish, has made me a hypocrite to my own code on lettuce. Celebrate my food hypocrisy and try this one, its really good.
I love that you turned an ongoing rant about nacho greens into a whole post about lettuce! Are you going to follow this up with a list of top nacho places in the T Dot? ;)
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