Salad Nights: Wal-Mart wins again
Caesar salad is one of my favorite foods. That was not always the case, but my father was exceptionally gifted at making the dressing just right, from scratch, as he was at cooking steaks on the grill when I was a kid, so it was one of the very few ways I could be encouraged to eat rabbit food way back then. Fast forward three decades...
I now eat all kinds of lettuce and actually like it. A good friend tells me that lettuce isn't all that nutritious. I reply with a polite version of "Fuck off.".
That brings me to this story. Why am I writing a blog entry about salad and dressing, particularly about Caesar salad? Well, as I finish this one, I am thinking I could not easily have had a reasonably fresh one as a child, especially at this time of night.
I grocery shop at night. I am sort of nocturnal to begin with, but I absolutely hate competing with the Mommy Vehicles full of annoying shoppers during the day, so I tend to hit the aisles just after midnight.
A few days ago, I bought some bagged "Hearts of Romaine" lettuce packaged by Fresh Express at a local Wal-Mart store ... at night, of course, when most stores were closed. I am currently eating the rest of the contents of said bag of rabbit food. I had a full dinner plate of it right after I bought it. Crunchy! It is still quite fresh. While it is not what I would expect/want to see on my plate for $8.99 at a fancy restaurant, it is plenty good and crisp enough for me here and now. The Caesar dressing I also bought at Wally-World: Cardini's "The Original Caesar Dressing". Not my favorite by a long shot (Dad made much better) but it works.
My point? I couldn't have sat here writing this crap and eating this kind of reasonably good salad on a moment's notice a quarter century ago. Wal-Mart made it possible. Hmmm.
I now eat all kinds of lettuce and actually like it. A good friend tells me that lettuce isn't all that nutritious. I reply with a polite version of "Fuck off.".
That brings me to this story. Why am I writing a blog entry about salad and dressing, particularly about Caesar salad? Well, as I finish this one, I am thinking I could not easily have had a reasonably fresh one as a child, especially at this time of night.
I grocery shop at night. I am sort of nocturnal to begin with, but I absolutely hate competing with the Mommy Vehicles full of annoying shoppers during the day, so I tend to hit the aisles just after midnight.
A few days ago, I bought some bagged "Hearts of Romaine" lettuce packaged by Fresh Express at a local Wal-Mart store ... at night, of course, when most stores were closed. I am currently eating the rest of the contents of said bag of rabbit food. I had a full dinner plate of it right after I bought it. Crunchy! It is still quite fresh. While it is not what I would expect/want to see on my plate for $8.99 at a fancy restaurant, it is plenty good and crisp enough for me here and now. The Caesar dressing I also bought at Wally-World: Cardini's "The Original Caesar Dressing". Not my favorite by a long shot (Dad made much better) but it works.
My point? I couldn't have sat here writing this crap and eating this kind of reasonably good salad on a moment's notice a quarter century ago. Wal-Mart made it possible. Hmmm.
posted by FZ at
1:11 AM
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