Not wanting to disrupt the burger controversy thread, I did have this thought that I’m curious who all may share?
Until I was an adult, I thought Thousand Island dressing was a “South Seas” thing.
Do you (did you) ever think that way? If so, what changed your mind?
I’ve always known what Thousand Island dressing is, and I’ve always presumed that the “islands” were the little chunks of relish in it. Is that correct? It never even occurred to me that it might be associated with any geographical islands.
From the upper Midwest area, in one of the Great Lakes, I think.
ETA: Ontario, maybe?
Check it out, then. Brace yourself!
This thread, apparently. I suspect most people don’t know the origin of the name. It’s not all that popular a salad dressing, these days. If not for the Big Mac, it would probably be even more obscure.
I had no idea where the term came from. In fact, although I frequently see it on grocery shelves and on restaurant menus, I have only tried it a few times and no longer remember what it tastes like. This entry tells where it came from:
So up to now I never even thought about where it came from for more than a fraction of a second.
When did I learn that? Fine, I’ll admit it: About 20 seconds ago. 
I grew up in northern New York so I pretty much always knew this.
Way cool. I went through the salad dressing progression of French (because that was the only kind Mama ever had) to Thousand Island (because it tasted better) to Blue Cheese / Roquefort (because it tasted way better) to a hodgepodge randomness these days of Ranch, Vinaigrette, Honey Mustard, etc. but still mostly Blue Cheese.
Something I was reading (online most likely) mentioned the St. Lawrence and the number of standard (now anyway) recipes that originated in the resorts in that region and suddenly had that Aha! moment. It messed with my head that I had been so long not knowing that bit of trivia.
Since I started this thread and have no quarrel with hijacks or changing subjects, are there other things like this that have come to you later in life?
I never knew about the geographical Thousand Islands until this thread, either.
Aisle 5 at my local grocery store.
I’ve known about the Thousand Islands most of my life, since I grew up along the Great Lakes and we sometimes went up to the St. Lawrence seaway and around the islands on summer vacations when I was a little girl. I have always assumed that the salad dressing was connected to the islands, but I don’t ever recall seeing it served specially there.
I’ve always known, but then, I have relatives all over Minnesota and environs.
It’s still my default salad dressing. Anything but Ranch. That shit’s vile.
From an old episode of Get Smart, Max is trying to foil an evil plot by infiltrating a secret KAOS island.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a salad bar or grocery-store dressing aisle without it, and Big Mac special sauce, while similar to Thousand Island, isn’t quite the same thing.
I have friends who have a summer cabin on one of the tiniest of those islands, so I learned about it a rickety card table while being taught how to play bridge by a craggy cantankerous matriarch who thought the world was divided into two classes: those who play bridge, and the unwashed.
Aye, I’m from upstate (Elmira) originally and always knew this.
Thousand island is very popular among people that I know. I did a survey one time because I was bringing a salad to a pot luck so I asked about 30 or so people what kind of salda dressing they liked, overwhelmingly they said Thousand Island.
nm. Not responsive to the thread
I saw a pretty good episode of CBS Sunday Morning on this topic. Quite a controversy in the Thousand Island region over who gets the “credit” for this “food.”
I think I heard of the Thousand Islands before I heard of the dressing. I grew up on Long Island.
Thousand Island dressing seems popular enough these days; it’s certainly replaced Russian dressing (essentially the same thing, only without the relish) among commercial dressings. It’s essential for a good roast beef sandwich since Russian is hard to find.