Put The Ladel Down, Let The Lettuce Go

I do not think much of many hotel restaurants to start. As other hotel services, they inflate prices with the knowledge that many guests use expense accounts and do not care about return on price. So I was actually surprised that the salad I ordered at this hotel used green lettuce rather than iceberg, and that the vegetables were plentiful and ripe.

I could not enjoy it, however, because someone had smothered the greens in a syrupy-sweet, corn starch-thickened vinegrette. Literally a quarter inch of the plasma sat at the bottom of the plate, ruining the leafy stuff.

Nit-picking? Sure I am. But I'm allowed here, and as long as I'm at it, let's do it well. How would you like a touch of deconstruction?

The word for the liquid used to flavor salads is "dressing". We derive the name from the action. When I put a vinegrette on a plate of washed lettuce with cucumber slices, I dress the salad. It lightly clings to the leaves.

We do not call this vinigrette "drowning", "bathing", or "soaking". We call it "dressing". Let my salad breathe. If other patrons want more dressing they can ask for it. Removing the stuff is more difficult. I have never seen 4 inch square terry cloth towels for drying spinach leaves that have been swimming in too much Catalina. Perhaps there ought to be. I think it would be easier, though, just to take it easy with the dressing.

Let my salad breathe.

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Last Updated: 7 April 1997
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