# Has the term "caesar salad" lost all meaning? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759 "2015-02-03T20:48:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/21 "2015-02-04T03:45:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Iceberg does not belong in _any_ salad, nor in fact in any food. It especially does not belong in salads at anywhere high-end. My boss always takes us to top steakhouses whenever we get together. They ALL have it on the menu. Every last one of them. Peter Luger’s, Ruth’s Chris, Brooks (Denver), Keen’s (NYC) etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/22 "2015-02-04T04:25:39Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > The only time I’ve seen a “salad” made with iceberg lettuce in the last 20 years is at high end steakhouses where it is served as a big wedge with blue cheese dressing and bacon crumbles, maybe a grape tomato as garnish. It is an homage to Mad Men culture and is 90% tongue-in-cheek. And it is called “Wedge Salad”: > **[List of salads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_salads)** > > Salad is any of a wide variety of dishes including green salads; vegetable salads; long beans; salads of pasta, legumes, or grains; mixed salads incorporating meat, poultry, or seafood; and fruit salads. They often include vegetables and fruits. > It is often served in Izakayas in the region as a light snack. > The following are examples of common salad dressings: (You’ll have to scroll down the list.) Also screw romaine. Hate that crap. It goes limp the instant you put dressing on it, and the chopped pieces paste themselves to your plate so that you have to fight with it to get it on the damned fork. Give me some nice crisp iceberg lettuce that I can actually get my fork into. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/23 "2015-02-04T08:11:50Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > The salad stopped being made tableside and bottled dressings appeared. That’s it there. Anything with coddled egg and croutons has to be made to order. If I go to a place where the salad and ingrediants aren’t made to order, a “caeser” salad is a chicken & lettuce salad. And yes, many people have no idea, and care less. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/24 "2015-02-04T09:30:36Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Both The Golden Steer and Hugo’s do the full prepared-at-tableside salads, and both places are excellent. I don’t know which Hugo’s you’re talking about, but I looked up [the menu for The Golden Steer](http://goldensteersteakhouselasvegas.com/menu-s/main-menu) and see that they talk up _Our Famous Caesar’s Salad_. That they label their salad as “famous” when it is merely _correctly made_ indicates the problem, I think. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/25 "2015-02-04T11:47:49Z")
I’ve never seen a Caesar salad that wasn’t with the bottled dressing. It’s usually pretty bare, with romaine and other leafy greens (like spinach) and Parmesan. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/26 "2015-02-04T14:09:49Z")
If you ever get a chance, treat yourself to a from scratch Cesar salad at nice place. It’s like a completely different dish than the tired imitators. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/27 "2015-02-04T14:27:51Z")
Certainly not at the Hotel Cesar in Tijuana, where it was invented and is still prepared at your table. The best Caesar Salad I’ve ever had. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/28 "2015-02-04T14:50:14Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > The only time I’ve seen a “salad” made with iceberg lettuce in the last 20 years is at high end steakhouses where it is served as a big wedge with blue cheese dressing and bacon crumbles, maybe a grape tomato as garnish. **It is an homage to Mad Men culture and is 90% tongue-in-cheek.** I disagree. Good steakhouses have had wedge salads for decades. The best make their own dressing, using enough blue cheese to cure every hooker in Manila. The last one I had was at Delmonico (Emeril’s joint.) They used Maytag cheese and heirloom grape tomatoes to make a wedge of iceberg taste like ambrosia. That was a serious salad. The only tongue in cheek was swabbing down the inside of your mouth with your tongue trying to get every bit of the dressing. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/29 "2015-02-04T15:06:30Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > Today my staff noted that there was an extra “caesar salad” in the refrigerator left over from takeout and I could have it for lunch. You misheard. What they actually said was that one of your co-workers had a salad that she didn’t want, so you were welcome to **seize her salad**. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/30 "2015-02-04T15:14:55Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > I disagree. Good steakhouses have had wedge salads for decades. The best make their own dressing, using enough blue cheese to cure every hooker in Manila. The last one I had was at Delmonico (Emeril’s joint.) They used Maytag cheese and heirloom grape tomatoes to make a wedge of iceberg taste like ambrosia. That was a serious salad. The only tongue in cheek was swabbing down the inside of your mouth with your tongue trying to get every bit of the dressing. 😛 I don’t know what you’re disagreeing with. I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said. You’re still putting fabulous toppings on a tasteless and nutritionless wedge of greens. The French can make a sauce that will make a piece of horsemeat taste fabulous, but it’s still horsemeat. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/31 "2015-02-04T15:30:07Z")
Sorry. I was just disagreeing that it was an homage or tongue-in-cheek, not disagreeing with the **meat** of your post. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/32 "2015-02-04T15:33:22Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > The French can make a sauce that will make a piece of horsemeat taste fabulous, but it’s still horsemeat. Horsemeat is nutritious and not harmful, so if the French can make it taste fabulous, why not eat it? Same thing for iceberg lettuce. Now if they were dolling up something of questionable provenance like dumpster meat or diseased animals, then that would be something different. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/33 "2015-02-04T15:52:11Z")
I don’t doubt that enough added protein, salt, fat, and other good stuff can make iceberg lettuce palatable. But why not instead add all of that good stuff to a salad green? Or, heck, if you just want something pale and crunchy, use celery instead of the iceberg: What few things iceberg does well, celery does better. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/34 "2015-02-04T15:55:29Z")
Iceberg lettuce has almost zero nutritional value. Romaine isn’t any great shakes, but it is miles ahead of iceberg. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/35 "2015-02-04T16:11:54Z")
Iceberg lettuce has its place. Nothing better on a burger or in a taco, for example. But in a salad it serves mainly as a dressing delivery system, so you don’t make a fool of yourself snarfing blue cheese dressing by the soup spoon-ful. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/36 "2015-02-04T18:23:57Z")
Look: a Caesar Salad contains certain ingredients. It’s like a BLT sandwich; leave out the bacon, or substitute with bologna, and it’s not a BLT. Now I get that whole raw-egg reluctance of certain restaurants, who substitute with a Caesar Dressing of some sort, and I’ll accept that as a Caesar, even if it’s not really. But when you substitute Iceberg for Romaine, shredded Cheddar for Parmesan, etc, then I’m sorry, it’s not only _not_ a Caesar, it’s not even reasonable, Caesar-like, substitute. And I had one of those crappy Iceberg-Caesars at Carrabba’s not too long ago. I thought of raising the issue, but we were a large party, and our lone waitress was running herself ragged just for my sister, whose “Goldilock’s Zone” on sweet tea is so _very_ exacting, necessitating no less than three trips for our waitress back to the kitchen before we had even ordered any appetizers. So I let it go, and ate my crappy Iceberg salad with Caesar dressing. +1 to those who say to splurge for a _real_ Caesar sometime. The anchovies seal the deal. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/37 "2015-02-04T18:33:38Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > When I was younger, a caesar salad consisted of romaine lettuce leaves with croutons, parmesan and a creamy dressing made with eggs, oil and Worcestershire sauce. There were occasionally anchovies. That was it. > … But how can they call it a caesar salad??? You forget garlic, which yes, can be on the croutons. But yeah, too many Caesar dressings have no\* bite.\* ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/38 "2015-02-04T18:37:03Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Iceberg lettuce has almost zero nutritional value. Romaine isn’t any great shakes, but it is miles ahead of iceberg. "The good: This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Iron and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate and Manganese. Read More [SELF Magazine: Women's Workouts, Health Advice & Beauty Tips | SELF](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2476/2#ixzz3Qnq0DiS1) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/39 "2015-02-04T18:41:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > "The good: This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Iron and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate and Manganese. > > Read More [SELF Magazine: Women's Workouts, Health Advice & Beauty Tips | SELF](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2476/2#ixzz3Qnq0DiS1) I tried to compare, but according to that site, a serving of iceberg lettuce is 1 cup shredded (72 g), while a serving of [romaine lettuce](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2475/2) is one leaf (6 g). I call shenanigans. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759/40 "2015-02-04T19:13:51Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > "The good: This food is low in Sodium, and very low in Saturated Fat and Cholesterol. It is also a good source of Thiamin, Vitamin B6, Iron and Potassium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate and Manganese. > > Read More [SELF Magazine: Women's Workouts, Health Advice & Beauty Tips | SELF](http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2476/2#ixzz3Qnq0DiS1) One cup of shredded iceberg lettuce has one gram of dietary fiber, or 3% of the recommended daily intake. That’s a very good source? A cup of spinach has 14 grams. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-the-term-caesar-salad-lost-all-meaning/711759.md?page=3)