rebecca's pocket

my standing advice to anyone going on a first date: do not order salad. it never ends well.

Frisee may be difficult to eat, but its' web like structure is great for suspending delicious lardons and roquefort cheese in a frisee aux lardons salad. Mmmmmm.

I have always thought that there's a directly proportional relationship with the poshness of a restaurant and the pricklyness of the lettuce in the salad. Let me explain:

You go into a chain store (Pizza, McDonalds, etc) and you get plain old boring iceberg lettuce - flat, crisp, unsurprising. If you're lucky it will be fresh - less lucky, it will be limp (ew!).

But then you go into a posh ol' restaurant (Italian, French, fusion - take your pick), and you get a bowl of spiky leaves that won't go on the fork properly, and definitely won't go in your mouth without spattering dressing everywhere.

I am not against posh restaurants (the food is divine), nor am I against iceberg (it's great direct from the fridge in the summer), but there's definitely something in this...

That's interesting, just this morning I was thinking that frisee is the new iceburg lettuce. My theory is that it takes up so much volume, salad mixes load up on it. They can fill a bag (or a plate) with much less product (and thus, expense) than they would have if they used leafier specialty greens.

I love frisee! A little anyway. I delight in picking it up with my fingers and eating it without the use of a fork. Not only does it feel sexy and naughty, I dont' get balsamic vinegar splatters on my clothes.