Salads are just the tip of the iceberg

[patti]

After a long week the wife and I like to cut an iceberg in half, slather half a bottle of Thousand Island all over (Lighthouse brand is a superior product), open a case of beer and turn out the lights.

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Am I the only one who wondered exactly where the Thousand Island is slathered before the lights go out?

My mom used to tear up iceberg lettuce, add salt and black pepper, and toss it with mayo for a simple salad to accompany our supper. She laughed pretty hard when I called her for the 'recipe' after I was married. (I swear, she did something to it to make it taste much more special than that.)

Edited October 27, 2004 by patti (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

(I swear, she did something to it to make it taste much more special than that.)

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You think Mom is holding out on you??

[patti]

(I swear, she did something to it to make it taste much more special than that.)

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You think Mom is holding out on you??

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Hehe. No, she got too much pleasure out of telling everybody about my quest for her recipe for her fabulous lettuce and mayo salad. I guess she just had that extra special 'mom's touch' for making food good.

Edited October 27, 2004 by patti (log)

[Pan]

I remember the days when iceberg lettuce was part of the daily salad. I also remember when my mother started buying red-leaf and dark green lettuce. My parents never looked back, and I started to enjoy eating lettuce! Perhaps iceberg may be good for some things, but salad is not one of them.

[vserna]

Most participants seem to love iceberg lettuce in this thread.

De gustibus non est disputandum.

But this is one more bit of proof that something deeper than even the Atlantic Ocean separates general American and European attitudes to food.

The great iceberg divide.

To us here, iceberg is no more than crunchy, pale green cardboard. No serious professional cook I know on this side of the pond would consider using it. I personally loathe it. Even in BLTs.

(Oh yes, iceberg is widely available here. And used by those people that appreciate the fact it's the only kind of lettuce you don't have to wash previously.)

[Pan]

I agree with you, Victor, except for the idea that you don't have to wash iceberg lettuce...

[vserna]

Actually, iceberg is so tightly packed that removing the outside layer of leaves is usually enough - there will not be one speck of dust inside. Unless a manic need for food hygiene grips us, of course.

[Adam Balic]

One of the things that I noticed on moving to the UK from Australia was that the Iceberg lettuce was more expensive then the round ("butter") lettuce. It is the other way around in Australia.

[kellycolorado]

gotta have it on my BLT's, just like mom used to make.

[Toliver]

Iceberg lettuce is a nostalgic/comfort food for me. It just screams "1950's", doesn't it?

It brings to mind the lunches I'd have at Bob's Big Boy restaurants when working at my part-time job during college. They'd serve iceberg lettuce as a "salad" with their burgers. I'd always get it with Thousand Island dressing which was redundant given the "secret sauce" on the burgers was just about the same thing.

[chow guy]

So popular is it that it even transcends its natural association with summer and salads, andI see it in steakhouses, cut in huge wedges, topped with chopped tomatoes, thick masses of bleu cheese dressing ... and in oriental places wrapping a variety of great fillings ...

Do you use iceberg? I love it for its pristine, clean qualities ...

How do you use it?

Is it ever going to make a huge comeback and replace $50 a pound "field greens"??

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I have to admit, I get miffed at restaurants that use iceberg. The only exception is a wedge with a pound of really good Roquefort dressing on top.

I use it at home for shredded crunch on tacos and for wrapping ground sirloin with smoked oysters (Chinese style).

I do think it will be back in style. Only because "everything old is new again". It will no doubt, be promoted by some dandy chef with a new twist and have it's time in the sun again.

Thank God for Costcos' $3.29 per pound field greens mix.

[Gifted Gourmet]

I'd always get it with Thousand Island dressing which was redundant given the "secret sauce" on the burgers was just about the same thing.

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Next, you'll tell me that there is no Santa and the Tooth Fairy is just a parent trying to be sweet to their child .. illusions being dashed is not nice ...

I thought the "secret sauce" was only like Thousand Island in color ... anyway, why someone would take a pristine, sweet, crisp lettuce like iceberg and not top it with blue cheese dressing is beyond my comprehension ...

[Toliver]

...anyway, why someone would take a pristine, sweet, crisp lettuce like iceberg and not top it with blue cheese dressing is beyond my comprehension ...

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Uhm, you'd have to like blue cheese in order to do that. And I don't.

[Adam Balic]

Iceberg lettuce has only been in the UK since the 1970's apparently. Also, it has to be sold in plastic.

Iceberg in the UK

[andiesenji]

Iceberg lettuce is a nostalgic/comfort food for me.  It just screams "1950's", doesn't it?

It brings to mind the lunches I'd have at Bob's Big Boy restaurants when working at my part-time job during college.  They'd serve iceberg lettuce as a "salad" with their burgers.  I'd always get it with Thousand Island dressing which was redundant given the "secret sauce" on the burgers was just about the same thing.

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Was it the Bob's on Ming?

[Pan]

Actually, iceberg is so tightly packed that removing the outside layer of leaves is usually enough - there will not be one speck of dust inside. Unless a manic need for food hygiene grips us, of course.

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What about pesticides?

[Toliver]

Iceberg lettuce is a nostalgic/comfort food for me.  It just screams "1950's", doesn't it?

It brings to mind the lunches I'd have at Bob's Big Boy restaurants when working at my part-time job during college.  They'd serve iceberg lettuce as a "salad" with their burgers.  I'd always get it with Thousand Island dressing which was redundant given the "secret sauce" on the burgers was just about the same thing.

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Was it the Bob's on Ming?

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Nope. I grew up in San Diego and it was the Bob's in the Mission Valley Shopping Center in San Diego (which closed many moons ago). I arrived here in Bakersfield the end of '85 and the Bob's on Ming was gone by then.

[andiesenji]

Too bad you missed it. It was the next to last drive-in with car-hop service to close. The one on Van Nuys Blvd in Sherman Oaks was the very last.

[alejita]

I use it in salads, sometimes, shredded fairly thin (a chiffonade, I suppose). When you mix this texture with other salad ingredients, it blends in, and you can pardon the lack of taste and enjoy the crispness.

Certainly worth using.

[alejita]

Actually, iceberg is so tightly packed that removing the outside layer of leaves is usually enough - there will not be one speck of dust inside. Unless a manic need for food hygiene grips us, of course.

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What about pesticides?

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You can get organic iceberg pretty easily; even here in Orlando FL (not your food mecca in case you were wondering) the supermarkets have Earthbound iceberg pretty regularly. I don't believe the "tight packing" protects you any.

[racheld]

Uh Hunh to all the uses above. Crispy crunchy iceberg. After you've had all the GREENness and oakleafs and reds and mescluns with their tiny personalities and their wee cutenesses and popularity, after bales of romaine and bushels of arugula and raddichio, acres of endive and cress and frisee, there comes a time in the tide of things in which only iceberg will do.

It's a good old sweatshirt of a vegetable, a trusty friend and colleague, a lean-on-me food that can provide the L for BLT, shred into a perfect nest for keeping teensy tea sandwiches fresh and moist, top a taco or a sub or a burger with less than elan, but more than ennui. It shreds or chops or leaves or cups with ease, making the transition from filler to cushion to neat package; wedges of it take their place on tables with the most exquisite cuts of meat; it floats forth on pristine crystal plates in some of the most privileged homes, some of the most treasured restaurants, and nestles between layers of ersatz beef and secret sauce with perfect ease and equal aplomb.

And a pile of finely-shredded, lightly-salted iceberg is my favorite accompaniment to a juicy grilled cheeseburger with all the fixin's. I eat it with my fingers, and don't even PRETEND it's fries. It has its own credentials.

[eJulia]

Uh Hunh to all the uses above.  Crispy crunchy iceberg.    After you've had all the GREENness and oakleafs and reds and mescluns with their tiny personalities and their wee cutenesses and popularity, after bales of romaine and bushels of arugula and raddichio, acres of endive and cress and frisee, there comes a time in the tide of things in which only iceberg will do.

It's a good old sweatshirt of a vegetable, a trusty friend and colleague, a lean-on-me food that can provide the L for BLT, shred into a perfect nest for keeping teensy tea sandwiches fresh and moist, top a taco or a sub or a burger with less than elan, but more than ennui.  It shreds or chops or leaves or cups with ease, making the transition from filler to cushion to neat package; wedges of it take their place on tables with the most exquisite cuts of meat; it floats forth on pristine crystal plates in some of the most privileged homes, some of the most treasured restaurants, and nestles between layers of ersatz beef and secret sauce with perfect ease and equal aplomb.

And a pile of finely-shredded, lightly-salted iceberg is my favorite accompaniment to a juicy grilled cheeseburger with all the fixin's.  I eat it with my fingers, and don't even PRETEND it's fries.  It has its own credentials.

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I don't think it's ever been well said. Thank you!!!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Wow! Didn't expect to see this thread come alive again ... and I have found even more uses for iceberg in the interim ...lettuce wraps are my new delight!

[fifi]

Since this topic was last active, I visited the amazing Lindey's in Columbus, Ohio and reported on it here. One of the classics at Lindey's is the "Lindey's Wedge." You can see it described in my first post and some later replies. That prompted an iceberg lettuce binge that I am not quite over, yet.

edit to add: I did start a topic on the iceberg wedge here.

Edited February 5, 2006 by fifi (log)