Curious about salad. Yes, really.
gremloBBPT
Posts: 51 Member
My curiosity is probably odd, lol, but I'm genuinely curious about this...
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
I grew up eating salad with every dinner. It was really unusual for us not to have it. In fact, it was my chore for years to prep the salad when I got home from school. We always ate it before dinner, except for my dad who ate his after (that had been the custom in his family growing up).
Talking with some people in my life about this, I learned that salad with dinner wasn't as ubiquitous as I had thought it was. I also learned that most of the people I've had this discussion with ate their salad with their meal, rather than before as most of my family did.
Both of my parents are Italian-American. For my dad's side, the cultural custom was to eat salad after dinner. My mom's side either stopped that custom or never had it in the first place, because they all ate it before dinner.
I don't know why I find different eating customs so interesting, but I do.
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
I grew up eating salad with every dinner. It was really unusual for us not to have it. In fact, it was my chore for years to prep the salad when I got home from school. We always ate it before dinner, except for my dad who ate his after (that had been the custom in his family growing up).
Talking with some people in my life about this, I learned that salad with dinner wasn't as ubiquitous as I had thought it was. I also learned that most of the people I've had this discussion with ate their salad with their meal, rather than before as most of my family did.
Both of my parents are Italian-American. For my dad's side, the cultural custom was to eat salad after dinner. My mom's side either stopped that custom or never had it in the first place, because they all ate it before dinner.
I don't know why I find different eating customs so interesting, but I do.
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Replies
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It was standard if we had pizza, pasta, or steak. USA, family of Italian descent. I'm 4 generations in.3
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Before dinner most days
Italian Irish descent2 -
gremloBBPT wrote: »My curiosity is probably odd, lol, but I'm genuinely curious about this...
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
1. No. We had it regularly, but not with every dinner. We had non starchy veg as a substantial part of all dinners (about half the plate) and sometimes it was salad (salad was served in a separate bowl, however), and sometimes we had a cooked veg + salad also, but we often had just the cooked veg. (We also always had a starch of some sort -- corn, bread, rice, potato -- and meat.)
2. It was served with dinner. (Unless at a restaurant, in which case it would be before.)
3. The US, and my family has been midwestern Americans for a long time.1 -
No salad almost ever. Both my parents were born in canada, with grandparents from The netherlands and england4
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gremloBBPT wrote: »My curiosity is probably odd, lol, but I'm genuinely curious about this...
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
I don't know why I find different eating customs so interesting, but I do.- I grew up eating wedge salad. This was a Wisconsin Supper Club standard long before it became trendy
- It was served before dinner except my Mom always ate hers after dinner.
- I am a Wisconsinite with deep roots here. Most of my ancestors were here by 1850 except one great grandfather who came here in 1866. My roots are German, Irish, Scottish, English, and Yankee
More than salad, we had plates of raw veggies before many meals. Typically it had carrots, celery, green onions, raw cabbage wedges, raw turnips, and radishes. Rarely did we have any kind of dip. Some, like the cabbage and turnips, just got dipped in a little salt. We didn't eat a lot of cooked veggies but when we did it was canned peas or green beans except corn season where we would gorge on fresh picked corn on the cob. When Mom did a roast beef, we would also have carrots, potatoes, and onions cooked with the beef roast.
I think some of our eating habits, especially the raw veggie platters, comes from the fact that Mom grew up on a farm so picking veggies from the garden and eating them right then was how they got a lot of their veggies in.4 -
Always had salad, with supper.
Born and raised in the United States. Second generation Swedish on mother’s side. Swedish/Dutch pre American revolution on father’s side.4 -
Almost never. But I was very difficult growing up a out vegatables. The two I would eat were broccoli if it was smothered in cheese sauce, or artichoke with butter. I would eat some citrus fruits, but I was not much for produce in general. My mother is a pescatarian, so it wasn't from lack of her wanting me to. I just imagine she got frustrated with the losing battle.
As an adult, I have gotten better. I don't eat it with every meal, but I eat it more frequently. I wouldn't say I love salad, but I do like a good salad.1 -
My parents ate salad occasionally, but I would never touch it as a kid, and I still don’t like it. I’ve tried lettuce many ways, with different dressings.. and forced myself to choke down a few. But almost.. and I mean literally almost vomiting, I’ve gave up trying. I try other ways to get my veggies in. I’m just not the salad kinda girl.1
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1. Sometimes. Depends if I or anyone wanted salad.
2. With.
3. Grew up in Portugal. Moved to Canada as a teenager. Typical Portuguese salad is sadly just lettuce and tomato (sometimes cucumbers) with olive oil and vinegar.1 -
Salad with the meal.
But can you call just lettuce and dressing a salad?
In the summers we had cucumbers and tomatoes out of the garden but other than that it was just lettuce and dressing.
Michigan born, raised and still live.2 -
But can you call just lettuce and dressing a salad?
Yes.
That's actually my preferred way to have a salad with dinner. Growing up we'd sometimes have it like that, but far more often I was expected to add to it tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, and shredded carrots. I must've made that combo about 1,000 times. Occasionally, things were fancy and we'd have artichoke hearts and/or olives.
Thank you all for answering. I've really enjoyed the extra details, too. I should read some books about food customs bc I seem to be endlessly interested in various aspects about it--culture, region, time period, individual habits. I watched a series of YouTube videos where a lady showed the meals her family would eat during the Great Depression. Some people binge watch Game of Thrones; I binge watch a grandma cooking. 2 -
gremloBBPT wrote: »My curiosity is probably odd, lol, but I'm genuinely curious about this...
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
(snip)
1. No. Sometimes, but not always. There was pretty much always lettuce and other salad-suitable veggies in the house, though. (Sometimes they were put on sandwiches or something, too.) We nearly always had vegetables of some sort with dinner - only rare exceptions.
2. With dinner.
3. USA, Great Lakes/Midwest. Mother's family USAian back as far as I know, father's parents were immigrants from Sweden & Norway (or maybe Grandpa was the child of an immigrant, not 100% sure). I don't know the source of the salad habits. Parents were born in 1912 & 1917, so food culture in general was pretty different then.0 -
I'm thinking we ate salad a lot. With dinner...we didn't do "courses". Chicken breast, broccoli, baked potato, and salad would be a totally normal dinner at my house growing up. I'm American.1
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Almost never. We had sliced raw veggies around almost all the time for grazing, but dinner was usually just a single pan hot meat/potatoes kind of affair. Usually pretty poorly done until my brother and I were old enough to kick Mom out of the kitchen and cook things more adventurous than Hamburger Helper. >_<
My Mom is from Tokyo and grew up with a cook. Dad is an upper-midwesterner (US) taught her how to make the 3 meals he would eat. He's probably somewhere on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum and ridiculously picky. Mom only eats because she has to and doesn't appear to have any preferences about the content or flavor of her food. She put healthy stuff in the fridge and sliced up the veggies and we just ate carrot sticks and cheese for snacks when we were hungry, because it was WAY better than anything Mom ever attempted to cook or Dad was willing to eat.4 -
Almost always after dinner or with second course. Italian-Polish decent born in Canada0
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Almost always. Iceberg lettuce with tomatoes and/or cheese, bottled dressing. Same old same old every. Single. Day.
With dinner.
Scottish/Irish on dads side. Mostly German-American grandma on moms side lived with us and did some of the cooking.
I had an aunt that I thought made the best salads! She put things like pickles, peas, carrots in it and homemade dressings with no recipe. I thought she was the most fantastic cook!1 -
Almost never, maybe at Christmas some iceberg would show up under some prawn cocktail. I do remember one time being given some iceberg salad as a side when I was between height growth spurts, shall we say. North of England.1
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Yes. With. Greek. 4
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Salad with dinner. My mom grew up in the US (as did I), but we are descendants of slaves from somewhere in Western Africa.
Most of my salads were lettuce (likely romain), tomato, and cucumber and I quite liked them. That said, my dinners were typically pretty vegetable heavy, mostly in the form of legumes but I also was, and still am, a big fan of broccoli. I typically ate it steamed and squeezed a slice of lemon over it. I also ate a lot of winter squash and yams.3 -
I only had salad with certain meals growing up, and this is still the case. Lettuce based salads less often than other kinds - lettuce was more of a "munch food". Salad was almost exclusively served with lunch, not dinner, because that's our main meal. Usually served with the meal, in most cases to break the starchiness of a super starchy meal. The main meal itself usually has vegetables so salad isn't always necessary, and I grew up eating vegetables for almost every snack and still do. I'm half Russian half Arab and my eating habits are a mix of both.
I understand finding these things fascinating. I find the concept of "child friendly food" fascinating, and the stereotype that children don't like vegetables even more fascinating. When we were children we ate what everyone else ate and loved it, and I don't remember any other child I knew who hated vegetables - most children at school brought vegetables with their lunch and we snacked on fruits and vegetables on playdates. I think this is still the case. My cousin's son is 2.5 years old and his favorite meal has lots of green leafy vegetables, and when we have family get togethers, all the children in the family eat just as many vegetable sticks as chips.4 -
Only the adults have salad, and usually after the meal is finished. It was always iceberg lettuce with a little cabbage, maybe some celery. My parents have better salads now with romaine, cabbage, radish, green onion, and celery. I always thought that was weird to eat salad after the main meal, normally you eat it first. We weren't ever forced to have salad as kids and I hated it then, if you'd told me at this age I'd be eating salad daily I would've thought you were crazy!
I grew up in America. My Dad is the bigger salad eater out of my parents, he grew up in the US but my grandparents grew their own vegetables and the culture eats a lot of produce (and lamb).
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We had salad often, eaten with our main meal of the day (which was lunch). Mother is Scandinavian but we lived in the UK mostly. The salad consisted of finely chopped spring onions, lettuce (usually Chinese leaves) and loads of coriander. Home-made oil and vinegar dressing - loads of it. The salad swam! My English grandparents would occasionally serve salad as a side to a cold "high tea". Their idea of salad was one limp lettuce leaf, half a tomato and a slice of cucumber, with salad cream on the side.
I've always enjoyed salad but the high point of my salad life was when Pizza Hut came along in the 80s. I fell in love with their salad bar.
Now I tend to eat salad as part of my lunch 2-3 days a week and we have one evening meal a week where salad would act as the veggie component.0 -
gremloBBPT wrote: »My curiosity is probably odd, lol, but I'm genuinely curious about this...
1. Growing up, did you have a lettuce-based salad with your dinners at home on most/all days?
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner?
3. What country did you grow up in? (And if your ancestors were from a different country, were your salad-eating habits from that culture?)
1. No. Though occasionally we would have raw tomato.
3. My parents immigrated from Taiwan. The Chinese distrust raw food as being unhygienic, to the point older people refuse to drink cold water. Our veggies were sautees and stir fries.1 -
taco salads were the only time I ate lettuce We were pretty poor, so my Mom made a LOT of casseroles! 0
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Not as a usual side. I think we ate more potatoes than salad. My mom did serve Chef's Salad for dinner sometimes. Most of our veggies were inside casseroles.0
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1. Most of our dinners growing up would be paired with a small salad. Romaine or spinach as a base, plus chopped raw onion, bell pepper, and carrots. My mom would add sliced mushrooms to hers. Wishbone Italian, Balsamic Vinaigrette, or Ranch was on the table; your choice. We would sometimes have a veggie on the plate too (canned/frozen-then-sautéed-or-microwaved-or-steamed like corn, peas, green beans, and broccoli).
2. The salads were prepped individually (sometimes mom, sometimes dad, sometimes me or my sister or brother) before dinner, and set out with the place settings. We would all eat everything at once, but I always ate mine last because I didn’t want my hot food to get cold while I was eating my salad. My dad would always comment on that, because he was used to people eating salad before the meal.
3. I’m American born and raised. Parents are too (NY and Chicago). Dads mom is from Britain and Canada, Moms dad is from Scotland/Ireland.
Now that I cook for myself, I love having a BIG salad alongside every dinner. Good way to use up fresh veggies, good way to bulk up a meal for less than 100 calories, and I usually make my own single serving dressing so that’s fun!0 -
In Central France there was always salads with and as luncheons. Dinner: Usually before dinner, Southern France is different. The Netherlands: Usually some salad with lunch and dinner. England: just about never salads at lunch and dinner. Belgium: very much like Central France. Germany: Usually salad with lunch, rarely during dinner time. Austria: usually salads with lunch, not so much for dinner. South Africa: Always a huge selection of salads for lunch and for dinner - usually eaten before the main meal. But also depends - every country is the same: lower class citizens usually eat very little salads - middle class is better, the rich ones just love their salads.0
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I was born in America on a farm in Minnesota. So were my parents of Polish descent. We had a garden in the spring and summer and ate salad from it before the main course. We didn't always have salad, but then always had a vegetable with the main course. Everyone dished their own plates from bowls or platters on the table.
34 yrs ago I married an Italian and moved to Rome, Italy. Big change culture wise. There, salad is served after the main course, as are most vegetables served as sides. There is a because. They eat their meals as courses.
First course: antipasto
Second course: pasta or risotto or soup
Third course: meat or fish (both if a wedding, for instance) plus vegetables or salad
Fourth course: fruit
Fifth course: desert
Then: caffe espresso (not capuccino
Then: liquors
These courses are followed in family meals, but reduced. Bread is served at every meal, as is fruit. My husband's family is originally from Southern Italy and I'm not familiar with the Northern customs.0 -
When I moved to Amsterdam to marry my dutch husband we would have salads after the main course as was customary in the Netherlands. However, we eventually switched things around to start with salad as we noticed we ate more of it when we had it as first course.
Second course salads used to be a basic affair of green leaves and mustard vinaigrette, little more than an afterthought. First course salads became more elaborate as time passed. Shaved parmesan with sliced pears and candied walnuts on green leaves with balsamic vinaigrette, for example. Or a griddled half baby gem drizzled with blue cheese dressing. In summer a Turkish salad of watermelon, cucumber, feta and mint dressed in pomegranate molasses.1 -
snowflake954 wrote: »I was born in America on a farm in Minnesota. So were my parents of Polish descent. We had a garden in the spring and summer and ate salad from it before the main course. We didn't always have salad, but then always had a vegetable with the main course. Everyone dished their own plates from bowls or platters on the table.
34 yrs ago I married an Italian and moved to Rome, Italy. Big change culture wise. There, salad is served after the main course, as are most vegetables served as sides. There is a because. They eat their meals as courses.
First course: antipasto
Second course: pasta or risotto or soup
Third course: meat or fish (both if a wedding, for instance) plus vegetables or salad
Fourth course: fruit
Fifth course: desert
Then: caffe espresso (not capuccino
Then: liquors
These courses are followed in family meals, but reduced. Bread is served at every meal, as is fruit. My husband's family is originally from Southern Italy and I'm not familiar with the Northern customs.
One thing I neglected to mention is that, unlike America, salad dressing here is very simple--EVOO, salt, wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar. My husband laughed the first time he saw cesare salad dressing because it doesn't exist here.0
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