To think - I used to respect your opinions… 
I frequently make salads for me only. I like romaine lettuce, but prefer fresh spinach. It is much healthier than lettuce. I’m not sure why spinach isn’t used more often.
Recent disease outbreaks involving Listeria and E. coli 0157:H7 have tended to involve Romaine lettuce and packaged mixed lettuce types/greens, not iceberg head lettuce.
'We’ve actually got some current research going on here that suggests, of all the different lettuce types, E. coli O157 likes romaine lettuce," Warriner says, “especially if it is breaking out of its dormant state. So there is an association with leafy greens and E. coli O157. People suggest it’s a pathogen-vegetable interaction going on, where they’re actually adapted to living on lettuce.”
You might think that tight iceberg lettuce heads would have a center free from bacterial contamination, but people still slice through the potentially contaminated outer leaves to get to the heart of the lettuce, so bacteria could be spread that way.
I avoid any pre-cut packaged salad greens.
So what time is dinner and can I bring the beer?
My cat likes the green outside leaves, I have a pic of her stealing it from my bowl =)
As I said, they are so useful. You can even use them for stuff like Cheetos and the like if you don’t want to get your fingers are fluorescent orange and greasy. My two kids, 7 and 5, somehow became proficient with chopsticks and refuse to eat their ramen or stir fry with any other implements. I never taught them; they’re not – in general – culinarily curious, but they took to chopsticks like insert your preferred comparison here.
Thank you for bringing that up. I saw a wedge salad pictured a couple of years ago and wondered how to eat it. The outer layers are going to be covered in excessive amounts of dressing while the inner layers are going to be bare. And do you break it up and toss it right on your plate? It seemed a weird way of having salad.
I know it’s healthier, but raw spinach has an unpleasant texture when I eat it. I prefer spinach at least slightly wilted. And it’s a pain in the butt to get completely cleaned.
I eat it with a knife and fork. Some salads (non-chopped) have pieces that are too big for me to eat in one bite, so it’s not too off-normal for me. I like a good wedge salad.
But isn’t some of the lettuce drowning in dressing while other bits are bare?
You have to adjust as you’re eating. It’s definitely not something you eat at a buffet.
I found it a weird experience. Sure, you might occasionally feel like halving a tomato slice or something, but sawing away at a big wedge of iceberg is something I’d more comfortably do prepping a meal on the kitchen counter next to the sink, as opposed to at the table in a fancy restaurant.
And then, you either cut each bite - and then mess it around in the dressing/toppings, or shred the whole thing and essentially toss it. So how is that any better/different than a simple tossed salad?
I’ve had it once and I was deeply disappointed. In a steak house - steak, chips, peas and apparently a wedge salad. I would just prefer a nice tomato with steak and chips, but nope, the only side option was wedge salad.
Everything was very good, except the wedge salad, which ended up seeming like it had too much dressing on the outer part, and not enough on the inner part
It must be very, very cheap and easy to prepare, so we have to be persuaded that it’s what we desire.
That’s what I was wondering.
Yes. That’s part of it. It all mixes in your mouth. Basically, take a vertical slice, and you have a layer of blue cheese dressing, bacon, and some tomato, and a big layer of iceberg that so satisfyingly crunches leaf by leaf under your teeth as you chew. The mouthfeel is part of the enjoyment, at least for me, of a wedge salad.
Agreed. I don’t find it difficult to eat at all. I actually like that it forces me to eat more slowly.
Better and cheaper is often what I find at the Asian markets too, especially for Asian cooking greens. It pays to shop around. Glad you found some of the good stuff. I’m beginning to crave salads now, a sure sign of spring to me.
Bingo. It’s just a freaking presentation fad. Geometric food.
Fad? If so, it’s a very old one. I associate wedge salads with old timey steakhouses. Some quick research shows the first printed recipe for it going back to 1916. It’s stuff my grandfather would have eaten.
What goes around, comes around. Food fads are like the width of pants legs.
I never felt they really went away, it’s just that you find them in more hip places now as well as the classic steakhouse. (And for good reason. They are awesome and it’s little to do with geometry. Im also glad folks have been starting to stand up for iceberg, as well.)
Wedge salads are great uses of crunchy water. Not as compatible with chopsticks unless you have a hinged jaw, though.