Before we begin, I must make it known that this blog may take off and become the next Perez Hilton or whatever. Most likely, it won't. In fact, if I had to guess, I would imagine that this will be read by all of about ten people. I imagine that no one else in his or her right mind would care one iota about the topics discussed here. Having said that...here we go!
It all started one evening when my parents were having a presumably lovely dinner at home. My dad, having just come home from work, was famished. Mom, who rarely cooks to begin with (but what she does cook is FANTASTIC), had dinner ready for her hubby as she knew it was a stressful day at work. Dad, being, well, my dad, asked where the accoutrements to this meal were. Some corn? Grilled onions? A salad?
Slightly annoyed, my mother went into the fridge, pulled out a bag of lettuce, placed it in a bowl, and served the dish to my father. His response: "This isn't a salad."
You would think that this minor incident would have little to no bearing on life in general. A minor misunderstanding between two grown-ups.
If this were any other family.
Eight years later, and our family is still torn on the issue. It has not only divided this family, but has caused many of our closest friends and completely random strangers to take sides among themselves.
So I ask the world: what is a salad?
Simple enough of a question, right?
Wrong.
I will refrain from slanting this argument one way or another to express my own (and correct) opinion on the matter. However, here are just a few arguments for and against the idea that a "salad" may simple be comprised of chopped up lettuce:
For:
- The main component of a "salad" is lettuce. Therefore, a bowl of chopped up lettuce is a "salad" - a CRAPPY salad, but a salad nonetheless.
- If you added salad dressing to a bowl of lettuce, than you have "dressed" a "salad." Therefore, what you were dressing was, in fact a salad.
Against:
- A salad is a heterogeneous mixture of items. Therefore, there needs to be more than one ingredient in order for it to be considered a salad.
- By the logic of the lettuce in a bowl argument, a bowl of chopped up watermelon pieces is a "fruit salad" which many consider ridiculous.
Once again, I could fill an entire internet worth of discussions and arguments on this one issue. For now, it is on you to decide.
Please argue below, but be warned: whatever you say will be wrong.
Not salad. Need more than one food for a salad.
ReplyDeleteBeing heavily involved in this debate for the past year or so, and including numerous other relatives and close-family friends, I still stand on the side of NOT A SALAD. My evidence is the primary definition for a salad from the Oxford Dictionary:
ReplyDelete"a cold dish of various mixtures of raw or cooked vegetables, usually seasoned with oil, vinegar, or other dressing and sometimes accompanied by meat, fish, or other ingredients"
+1 for the CORRECT side.
Not a salad....obvi
ReplyDeleteKevin, as I am the non-partial observer to this/these arguments, I must ask
ReplyDeleteyou to be a little bit more specific. When you say, "...various mixtures..." that would imply that the "salad" consists of not one mixture, but multiple mixtures. That is, two ingredients, such as lettuce and tomato, for example, would not constitute a salad, because that is only one mixture.
However, if a third ingredient were added, say, lettuce, tomato and cucumber, you have a mixture of the lettuce and tomato, the tomato and the cucumber, and the cucumber and the lettuce.
Is that correct?
No. The way I interpreted the definition was as folows:
ReplyDelete- lettuce and tomato is a salad
- lettuce and cucumber is a salad
A salad is a single mixture. These are various mixtures that both comprise a salad. Therefore, the definition is taking into account all the various mixtures that could comprise a salad. Not necessarily that a single salad must contain multiple different mixtures (although that would clearly also be a salad).
Honeymoon Salad
ReplyDeleteLettuce alone, undressed.
qed
I would have to say that mere lettuce is only the start to a good salad.
ReplyDeleteCase in point - the famous iceberg wedge found in many a fine steak house. That pitiful wedge alone does not become a salad until dressing is added. That my friends is what vaults a number of different ingredients to the status of salad - your dressing of choice.
It doesn't matter what you choose to throw in the bowl; a mixture of cold vegetables without lettuce is still a salad when dressing is added.
What about coleslaw? Macaroni salad? Potato salad? Egg salad? Absolutely!!
It's all about the dressing.
Not a salad!
ReplyDeleteQuestion for Cheryl (and those on Team Salad):
If you chop up one type of lettuce into bite size pieces on a cutting board, what do you call that green stuff on the board? Chopped up lettuce? Pre-salad? Salad? Or is it only a salad once it's on a plate/in a bowl/etc. to be eaten?
If it is only a salad when placed on an eating device, can you name another single food (no mixtures) that changes its definition just by the container in which it resides?
Also, to argue against the main component argument, macaroni is the main component in a macaroni salad but the noodles by themselves in a bowl would never be called a crappy macaroni salad, unless as a joke.
@ long string of random numbers and letters:
ReplyDeleteJust because someone calls it something, does not make it so. If I called a horse a windshield wiper, I would be wrong. That doesn't stop me from calling it that.
More to the point, we are challenging the convention of a salad. Some people do recognize that as a "salad." But just because this one case proves your point does not make it an argument, just merely an example of one side of the argument.
Q.E.Dominated
Not a salad!
ReplyDeleteGregg Lewis says:
ReplyDelete"If she puts it on the table as a salad...then it's a salad! Simple enough."
Barbara Nash says:
ReplyDelete"I can go into Publix right now and buy a bagged, pre-cut salad, one of the options is simply romaine lettuce, hence a salad can be just lettuce of whatever variety. I have often purchased this as my entire meal."
CAZ SAYS:
ReplyDeleteWHAT ABOUT A SEAFOOD SALAD VS A SHRIMP SALAD: ONE HETEROGENEOUS, THE OTHER HOMOGEEOUS. AH, FOOD FOR THOUGHT.