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It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

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It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Fri Feb 12, 2010 4:47 am

Saw it tonight on the menu at an otherwise completely traditional Punjabi Indian restaurant.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Karen/NoCA » Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:36 pm

Funny, however there is always that one element of our population that goes into a fine dining restaurant and says, "don't you have hamburgers?" We have a local restaurant which is very popular among the professional community; they specialize in upscale Spanish/Mexican type foods and lots of seafood. They actually create special salads and dishes for their repeat customers which have nothing to do with the theme of the restaurant, and name them after the client, then print them on the menu. It is rather fun to read. Caesar salads seem to be really trendy right now, and most are nothing like the way they should be made.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Carl Eppig » Fri Feb 12, 2010 12:46 pm

Since they are made with Romaine which we love, we order them with Blue Cheese Dressing!
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Salil » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:13 pm

Yup, that's really over the top.

Did anyone actually order it? :)
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Dave R » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:17 pm

Down the street from my tennis club there was a typical American Chinese looking restaurant. It had the curved red roof, the cheesy gold lions next to the door, etc. The sign outside always struck me as odd though. It said they served Hunan, Cantonese, Szechuan and Dutch.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:19 pm

Carl Eppig wrote:Since they are made with Romaine which we love, we order them with Blue Cheese Dressing!


Well then you've had a very good salad, but without the correct dressing it's not caesar. Not that the caesar served in most restaurants is the real deal--most mid-priced restaurants and no doubt this Punjabi restaurant are pouring something creamy out of a jug they buy through a food service company, and a genuine caesar is not creamy.

But anyway, I thought it was amusing. Certainly lowered my expectations for the rest of my meal even before we ordered our food.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:28 pm

Dave R wrote:Down the street from my tennis club there was a typical American Chinese looking restaurant. It had the curved red roof, the cheesy gold lions next to the door, etc. The sign outside always struck me as odd though. It said they served Hunan, Cantonese, Szechuan and Dutch.


And Dutch? First of all, have you ever been to a Dutch restaurant, and do you have any idea what Dutch cuisine is? I know already the answer is no. And there's a reason the answer would be no: there IS no Dutch cuisine. :)

But the idea made me laugh: there's a Dutch town near me where I swear almost everybody has a last name starting in Van or Vander. Seriously, they are Dutch. I went to a Mexican restaurant there a few months and laughed out loud at my combination plate: the sides were beans, rice and cole slaw.

:)
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Shel T » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:29 pm

Hmmm, but Caesar salad with vindaloo sauce sounds kinda interesting.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:38 pm

Shel T wrote:Hmmm, but Caesar salad with vindaloo sauce sounds kinda interesting.


Or: BEWARE OF THE CROUTONS!
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Salil » Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:43 pm

Jenise wrote:Well then you've had a very good salad, but without the correct dressing it's not caesar. Not that the caesar served in most restaurants is the real deal--most mid-priced restaurants and no doubt this Punjabi restaurant are pouring something creamy out of a jug they buy through a food service company, and a genuine caesar is not creamy.

But it's a Punjabi restaurant! Everything must have cream (or butter or oil, unless it's straight from a tandoor).
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jeff Grossman » Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:36 pm

Jenise wrote:And Dutch? First of all, have you ever been to a Dutch restaurant, and do you have any idea what Dutch cuisine is? I know already the answer is no. And there's a reason the answer would be no: there IS no Dutch cuisine. :)

That's not true. They have a (limited) cuisine.

One is really better off finding an Indonesian place and having rijstaffel, but that doesn't mean that Dutch cuisine doesn't exist. :wink:
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Fri Feb 12, 2010 8:54 pm

Jeff Grossman/NYC wrote:
Jenise wrote:And Dutch? First of all, have you ever been to a Dutch restaurant, and do you have any idea what Dutch cuisine is? I know already the answer is no. And there's a reason the answer would be no: there IS no Dutch cuisine. :)

That's not true. They have a (limited) cuisine.

One is really better off finding an Indonesian place and having rijstaffel, but that doesn't mean that Dutch cuisine doesn't exist. :wink:


I would say that they have traditions. But a cuisine? Not really. (And all my Dutch friends would agree with this.)
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jeff B » Fri Feb 12, 2010 9:29 pm

I couldn't agree more! I'd even go so far as to say that I think the ceasar salad in itself goes too far! LOL It's just one of those foods/salads that really turns me off for some reason - its smell, seasoning etc.

Of course there's certainly foods I like that are likely not enjoyed by some. So if others enjoy ceasar salads then more power to them I suppose. But for me, its up there with ARTIFICIALLY flavored iced teas, diet sodas, etc of which I guess its now popular/more healthy to like but which I simply do not...

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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jeff B » Fri Feb 12, 2010 9:41 pm

Karen/NoCA wrote:Funny, however there is always that one element of our population that goes into a fine dining restaurant and says, "don't you have hamburgers?"


That element is me and he's now blushing... :lol:

Just kidding (somewhat). I'll take a Filet Mignon in its place. But it has to be one of those two! :)

Jeff
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Bonnie in Holland » Fri Feb 12, 2010 11:07 pm

Egads, I don't know if I would call it a 'cuisine' when the typical foods are raw herring with chopped onion, pea soup, a fried egg and slice of ham on a piece of toast, mashed potatoes mixed with sauerkraut and a sausage...nope, not my idea of a coherent style of preparing and eating food. It's food people shove into themselves to stay alive, is all. And that's the spirit in which food is generally eaten here. cheers, Bonnie
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Daniel Rogov » Sat Feb 13, 2010 5:08 am

Ah, but was it not the Dutch who had such a strong influence that Indonesian cuisine was adopted to their tastes?

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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Carl Eppig » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:06 am

Daniel Rogov wrote:Ah, but was it not the Dutch who had such a strong influence that Indonesian cuisine was adopted to their tastes?

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Daniel, you took the words right out of my fingers.
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Bonnie in Holland » Sat Feb 13, 2010 2:08 pm

I think that the Indonesian cuisine was adapted to Dutch tastes more when the Dutch and Indonesians came back to Holland (post world war 2) and there started to be Indonesian take-out and restaurants here. So it was adapted in Holland, not in Indonesia. (For example, rIjsttafel is a Dutch invention, not typical in Indonesia.) I've never heard that the local food actually in Indonesia was adapted to Dutch tastes -- having said that, though, it would not surprise me at all if in the Dutch colonial enclaves in Indonesia (and for the food cooked at home by the Indonesians for the Dutch - because a lot of them had servants to do that kind of thing) that the food was indeed adapted to Dutch taste (sweeter, less spicy, more meat, etc). All the islands in Indonesian remain with their own takes on the cuisine, with a great variation between islands. Not the case in Holland. You find a few standard dishes in most Indonesian restaurants in Holland, not the great variety that you would find in Indonesia. cheers, Bonnie
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Re: It's official: the caesar salad thing is out of control

by Jenise » Sat Feb 13, 2010 3:09 pm

Daniel Rogov wrote:Ah, but was it not the Dutch who had such a strong influence that Indonesian cuisine was adopted to their tastes?

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You could say the same thing about the influence of mainstream American tastes on McDonald's hamburgers. Doesn't make them good.
My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

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