290443 Wed Oct 02 16:01:34 -0700 2002 24 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1576482 I have avoided iceberg lettuce with a vengeance, looking down on it with disdain. I just have bad memories of limp, brown-edged leaves in salads at cheap restaurants and bad meetings. So last night, I had to take one of my kids to a 5th grade pot luck dinner at school. The food was great, with lots of ethnic offerings. My son went back for at least four servings of the salad made with iceberg lettuce. He loved it. He requested that I buy some and make that salad at home. He even wrote it on my grocery list. Iceberg lettuce used to be the only lettuce available in the markets for salads. Since other lettuces have become so readily available, I don't think I've purchased iceberg in 20 years or so, certainly not in his lifetime. My kids love salad, but I never use iceberg lettuce. Do I have an unfair mental block against iceberg? Have I missed out on something great for all these years? Should I hope he forgets? Wed Oct 02 16:01:34 -0700 2002 0 Pat Darnell 1 1576483 I'm not a big fan of iceberg either. But I think if your son wants it why not satisfy him? If dressed up with other interesteing ingridents and dressing an iceberg can be redeemable. I've seen more often now in trendy restaurants they are serving wedges of iceberg ususally with strong dressing like blue cheese. Wed Oct 02 16:07:40 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Wendy Lai 1 1576485 It's probably b/c it doesn't have the peppery taste that other lettuces can. I find it mostly tasteless. But we did used to go to a not at all trendy restaurant in New Brunswick, NJ that served wedges of iceburg with whatever dressing you wanted with dinner. It's lack of taste makes it a nice conveyance for eating salad dressing. The one thing that's fun about iceburg is if you get a head of lettuce, remove the first couple of leaves, then bang it, core down, on the counter - you can remove the core without having to cut it out. Wed Oct 02 16:11:36 -0700 2002 1576482 0 LisaLou 2 1576507 A note about coring iceberg in this way, be sure to use the rest of head quickly. It will wilt much faster and not last as long in the fridge once the core has been removed. Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/287492#1546763 Wed Oct 02 17:33:14 -0700 2002 1576485 0 Melanie Wong 2 1576549 First rest. job,1974,smacking head after head on the prep board,pulling the core then sliding them over to the next guy who would chop and throw them in the deep stainless sink then into a giant strainer.Don't forget the Veg-All(retards the browning!).Despite it all I still,on occasion,crave a wedge of Iceberg with some bottled B.C.Dressing.Here in California Bob's does the trick. Wed Oct 02 23:57:47 -0700 2002 1576485 0 jed 1 1576486 I think iceberg is back in fashion now. Can't imagine cheeseburgers or taco salad without it. As for what we used to call "tossed salad." We have so many interesting things to add to the mix that the crispiness can be a welcome addition. Just so we don't get back to just iceberg, a slice of green hothouse tomato, and the bottled orange "French" dressing! Wed Oct 02 16:12:41 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Plano Rose 1 1576487 I tend to shy away due to the lack of flavor, but it has a nice crisp texture which lends itself well to salad, especially when mixed with other greens. Wed Oct 02 16:13:00 -0700 2002 1576482 0 AlanH 1 1576488 I'm with you - I avoid iceberg if I can. But if your son likes it, why not try mixing in the iceberg with other varieties of lettuce and greens? That way he gets what he wants and you serve the better-for-him darker greens. Do you know who made the salad? Maybe there was something else in the entire mixture that he liked, or the salad dressing? Wed Oct 02 16:14:09 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Linda W. 1 1576490 Iceberg makes a perfect foil/accompaniment to many spicy or deepfried Asian dishes e.g. fried minced pigeon in iceberg 'cups', spicy salted shrimp or squid over shredded iceberg, or even iceberg in Chinese-style soup with deepfried tofu squares. It's often a garnish on many Chinese dishes but I usually eat it, together with the half-moon slices of cucumber or tomato, parsley, maraschino cherries, pineapple and anything else decorative. Wed Oct 02 16:16:48 -0700 2002 1576482 0 ju 2 1576522 Agreed in spades! The choice leaves are good once in a while in salads and certainly shredded for tacos, etc, but its true calling is as a "wrap" for savory Asian (and maybe other ethnicities but I've only really seen Asian, I think Chinese specifically) spicy\saucy dishes. I've had excellent minced duck in lettuce wrap, and my (Jewish) mother used to make a saucy ground chicken and cashew dish wrapped in iceberg. Wed Oct 02 20:00:05 -0700 2002 1576490 0 dude 3 1576556 One of my favorite deli sandwiches was shredded iceberg lettuce on a chicken liver sandwich on rye. And what did your Italian mother do with it? Just joking with you because you reminded me that these days one can have a couple mothers or fathers. One set of my grandchildren has 4 grandmothers: 1 Italian (Catholic), 1 Jewish, 1 Lutheran (don't know ethnic source), and 1 generic Protestant Scotch-Irish. Thu Oct 03 03:13:44 -0700 2002 1576522 0 saucyknave 1 1576500 And you've got to have it for a Cobb salad - my daughter's favorite. I just hide it under the other stuff on the grocery conveyor belt & hope no one sees... Wed Oct 02 17:16:34 -0700 2002 1576482 0 torta basilica 2 1576508 I've always loved a cold, crisp wedge of iceberg lettuce with good Russian dressing on it. Heaven knows it's better for me than the fried foods I love so much! Wed Oct 02 17:34:05 -0700 2002 1576500 0 Pat Hammond 3 1576512 every now and again when i make mac and cheese or meatloaf for clients requesting comfort food in the winter months i'll do head lettuce wedges with homemade bleu cheese dressing. a blast from the past for sure! Wed Oct 02 18:56:01 -0700 2002 1576508 0 Rochelle 1 1576504 Iceberg falls into the category of comfort food for me. I prefer Romaine, little gem or butter lettuce (which seems to be hard to get in the UK but readily available in France). I have to say that I really dislike many of the lettuces available - they are just too bitter and often very rough edged in texture. It makes for very unpleasant eating. The experience is more like eating hedge clippings then a good salad. Recently I have taken to making my salads out of baby leaf spinach - its a complete renaissance when it comes to salad nicoise and much better than many continental style lettuces. Wed Oct 02 17:25:33 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Hallie 1 1576505 I recently had dinner at a very uppity (and pricey) restaurant, where I was largely unimpressed, especially by this item on the specials menu: "Retro" Iceberg Salad with Thousand Island Dressing........9.50 If you ask me, that's just a bad joke. OTOH, the inner leaves of Boston or Butterhead lettuce sort of blow my skirt up. Wed Oct 02 17:26:29 -0700 2002 1576482 0 GG Mora 2 1576589 They have no shame. And they probably wouldn't get it right anyway. I get a craving about twice a year for exactly that salad (which is also how often I have iceberg lettuce). But I'm not paying a dime extra for it, it's coming as part of the meal. Thu Oct 03 11:04:27 -0700 2002 1576505 0 muD 1 1576515 Call me weird but I like iceburg. I will say that it's not something I want from a restaurant because of the same reasons you hate it (wilted, brown, yucky stuff). At home though, I'll pick up a good fresh head every once and awhile, tear off all the good bits and eat it up! And you have to have it for hamburgers and taco salads! Wed Oct 02 19:15:08 -0700 2002 1576482 0 SisterT 1 1576519 Count me in the pro-iceberg camp. I had avoided it for years, and a few years ago found that my snobbery about it was quite unwarranted. First, it has a some flavor (perhaps only to people cursed with lots of flavor receptors on their tongue, who tend to be people who avoid overly hot/spicy/bitter foods, too...; I cannot abide arugula and mustardy greens for this reason), at least as much as the core of butterhead lettuces, plus a texture far superior to romaine and leaf lettuces, and very good holding capability. On a sweltering day, it is also great ice cold, dipped in some sugar.... Wed Oct 02 19:26:00 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Karl S. 2 1576557 I think you've put your finger on the problem, iceberg lacks snob appeal. Those who grew up before the food revolution are prejudiced against it at least in part because at one time it was the only lettuce widely available. Now that so many other greens are available, they avoid iceberg. Youngsters who have no sense of iceberg's "stigma," however, are reacting to their experience of it and the refreshing juicy crunchy texture which easily accommodates heavier, less acidic dressings such as Russian, Blue Cheese, and other heavy and creamy dressings. It doesn't have to be one or the other. We can enjoy the variety! And Karl, give Arugula another judicious try: make a salad of arugula, sliced pears, walnuts, and a blue cheese of your choice. Drizzle it lightly with oil (I like walnut or a light olive), then sprinkle with a good sherry vinegar, grind some pepper over it all and sprinkle good Brittany or Malden salt over it. (Don't make a vinaigrette and mix completely, you want little bursts of the individual tastes). Thu Oct 03 03:30:22 -0700 2002 1576519 0 saucyknave 1 1576530 I've never understood why iceberg lettuce gets such a bum rap while celery -- which, like iceberg, is all texture, no flavor, and comprised primarily of water -- is never subjected to the same critique. Personally, I like both of them. I think of them as crunchy/crispy water, which isn't such a bad thing. -- Paul Wed Oct 02 20:40:29 -0700 2002 1576482 0 Paul Lukas 1 1576554 My son also discovered iceberg lettuce when he was younger. And he insisted on ordering it in every restaurant. Talk about embarrassing. But I guess it's a good thing when your kid finds a green vegetable they'll eat. (I also remember when he was much younger and discovered "Iron Kids" white bread on a tv commercial and insisted he had to have it. I bought it, he took one bite, and that was the end of white bread in our house). Thu Oct 03 01:14:03 -0700 2002 1576482 0 jenniferfishwilson 2 1577002 So did your son like or dislike the iron kids white bread? (thats the one without any crust right?) Mon Oct 07 17:39:52 -0700 2002 1576554 0 kurt 3 1577045 This was 10 years ago so it's not the one they advertise now--it was just plain ole wonder-type no-flavor no-texture white bread. He hated it. (Although he did think it was pretty funny to roll up the entire loaf he refused to eat into a small ball). It was a great lesson in "don't believe everything you hear on tv". Mon Oct 07 23:26:05 -0700 2002 1577002 0 jenniferfishwilson 1 1576676 I can't believe no one mentioned the ultimate use for iceberg, which is on a fish sandwich. Tarter sauce, fried fish fillets, a toasted kaiser roll and a huge layer of crispy iceberg. It transforms the flavor of this most ultimate of comfort foods into something otherworldly - a sandwich definitely greater than the sum of its parts. I've tried the same sandwich minus the i.b. and was dismayed at the result. No other lettuce works either. THM Thu Oct 03 16:53:27 -0700 2002 1576482 0 THM