Curious about salad. Yes, really.
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snowflake954 wrote: »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.
Yes, that's how we usually dress 90% of our salads. Except for mayo salads, I grew up eating them on special occasions like Christmas eve and such, one of the reasons I don't hate mayo like many people here do.1 -
snowflake954 wrote: »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.
I remember spending time in Milan in my early twenties when I was still working in the fashion industry. I was surprised that Ceasar salad was not Italian at all. I would ask for it at cafes and get dumbfounded looks. Only later did I discover it was an invention of the Caesar Palace Hotel in Mexico City.2 -
Almost never a green salad. Pretty much the only salads we ate were cucumber salad, potato salad, tuna salad, and egg salad.
I'm not really a salad guy...every once in awhile, but in general I prefer my veggies cooked. I do eat a lot of wilted spinach, which is my primary source of greens that you would typically have with a salad.0 -
With both sets of grandparents always before and always served. Italian American also.0
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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?)
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.
This is how we ate as well. I'm from Massachusetts and so was my maternal grandfather, but my mother grew up in Illinois.
Mom always dressed the salad - EVOO, wine vinegar, and celery salt and garlic powder.
BTW, our lettuce was never iceberg. This is in contrast to what an ex boyfriend of mine's young adult children were used to eating - when I first served them a salad made from red leaf lettuce, they thought it was spoiled, being used to the pale color of iceberg.1 -
nighthawk584 wrote: »taco salads were the only time I ate lettuce
We were pretty poor, so my Mom made a LOT of casseroles!
Aside of my Dad's salad we had a lot of casseroles too. Both parents were really poor, my Mom's splurge was potato flakes for mashed potatoes as she's the oldest of 7 and spent her childhood peeling potatoes. Most vegetables were frozen and we ate a lot of rice and pasta, stew was a big meal as well. After having it so much as a kid I can't stand eating the combo of that frozen vegetable bag of square carrots, peas, and corn though I like each vegetable. Fresh vegetables are amazing, I've been trying ones I've never had this last year and luckily have enjoyed all aside of one.
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Lately I have found a homemade ranch recipe that I dig. It has sour cream, mayo, milk (equal parts) and chives, dill, garlic, and lemon juice. It has fewer calories than typical bottled ranch and no sugar, so it's beetus-friendly. If people have other recipes to share that don't involve sugar or that I can substitute monkfruit or something I'm interested bc I don't want only ranch forever lol. Vinaigrette is ok sometimes but Im not big on it.0
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Always had lettuces, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers in the house.. salad if we wanted it.. maybe a few times per week as the norm. Typically before dinner or as a mid day snack. My Mom loved to make homemade dressings with different oils and herbs. Croutons were a big hit in our house too.
Family is American/ NYC based for over 200 years....grew up with lots of food choices and international influences.. I eat a lot more greens now as an adult, but that’s just preference.
I too think food customs are interesting!0 -
I grew up in Canada and we had a huge garden. We eat a boatload of fresh veggies growing up! In salads and in other forms as well! Still love my salads and raw fresh veggies to this day!😃0
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Lately I have found a homemade ranch recipe that I dig. It has sour cream, mayo, milk (equal parts) and chives, dill, garlic, and lemon juice. It has fewer calories than typical bottled ranch and no sugar, so it's beetus-friendly. If people have other recipes to share that don't involve sugar or that I can substitute monkfruit or something I'm interested bc I don't want only ranch forever lol. Vinaigrette is ok sometimes but Im not big on it.
In the summers when I have herbs in my garden I make 1. The Joy of Cooking Ranch dressing recipe using plain yogurt and 2. JOC Tzatziki sauce, also with yogurt, and with fresh cucumber - it's a lot lighter than what I get with gyros from sub shops.1 -
Growing up in my southern American home, we did not eat salad with our meals. Nearly never, actually.
When I met my husband in junior high, his Italian-American family always ate salad. So, all these years later, we have a salad prob 3-4x a week with our food or just by itself0 -
Lately I have found a homemade ranch recipe that I dig. It has sour cream, mayo, milk (equal parts) and chives, dill, garlic, and lemon juice. It has fewer calories than typical bottled ranch and no sugar, so it's beetus-friendly. If people have other recipes to share that don't involve sugar or that I can substitute monkfruit or something I'm interested bc I don't want only ranch forever lol. Vinaigrette is ok sometimes but Im not big on it.
I love this ranch recipe. I use the lower quantities of sour cream and mayo.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ranch-dressing-recipe_n_3769342?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMFhWSQzD2X3UKUaqvOVyYpAp-HUSemLvJneqP4v8H7PTOvdiEo9lVL4XX5snLhwTsciIQoGZNgIUNYWezD7m67IH_4AMbIlHrHkc-Z4FjKouI8Bznk_KpDjHS9PVdnOXvqxJP03_F4ZjlI-NLSJ6-_qRHpZowk8OszXkoSfk6oI0 -
We always had veggies of some sort at every meal, unless it was takeout night, which wasn’t often. Salads were served every night in every season except winter, just with the meal.
Most of our veggies were home grown. I’m in Australia.
Veggies have always been a priority to us, and I drum that into my kids now. My daughter grows some veggies at our place.0 -
Growing up in Scotland in the 80s (with parents from two different parts of England) salads were just not a thing.
Sometimes, on warm days in the summer, we would sit down to a meal of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, carrot sticks, boiled eggs, pickled onions and mayonnaise, and my parents would make noises about 'a nice salad'. I was... unenthused.
Down in southern England in the early 2000s, I was introduced to the concepts of rocket, feta cheese, olives, and vinaigrette.
Mind. Blown.2 -
Growing up we had salad almost every day. Usually some type of in-season lettuce, tomatoes and spring onion as the base. "Bonito in olive oil" which is a form of tuna, and avocados often, but I didn't like the avocado's texture as a kid (I LOVE it now). Up to this day, my brother and me will scarf down any salad that comes near us.
We usually had it as a starter, or accompanying the main dish but always served on its own, in a big bowl to share.
We are from Spain, from the North coast, but still a very Mediterranean diet.1 -
1. yes, all dinners
2. after dinner
3. I grew up in Belgium, but it is a northern French habit from my mom's side.
The salads that were served after dinner were very simple, usually simply lettuce or frisée (curly endive) with occasionally cucumber and/or tomatoes when in season. The dressing was always a freshly made vinagrette made from olive oil, any kind of vinegar, mustard and s&p.
When I started to live with hubby he was very surprised with this habit as they only had chopped raw veggies on the side with dinner - and then only occasionally.
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1. Nope, cooked veg each day with meat/fishrather than salads, never enjoyed a salad when I was a young un.
2. Was it served before, with, or after dinner? n/a
3. What country did you grow up in? Northern Ireland, where the humble potato is king LOL
I enjoy salads now for lunch most days and will serve them as an accompaniment if we're having something like chicken goujons, pizza or pie. Salad goes great with that kind of thing whereas other meals are better with cooked veggies.
I would never think of having salad with something like spag bol or carbonara though...... but thats probably just a cultural thing....0 -
1. We had salad with virtually every dinner.
2. It was served with dinner.
3. Grew up in the American South.
Our salads were typically romaine lettuce with carrots, celery, and any other vegetables that were at hand. Dressings were typically homemade vinaigrette or blue cheese dressing, although we sometimes had store-bought French or Thousand Island.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. 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.
^^This pretty much describes my experience except
1. While we had it frequently, we had it more frequently in warm weather when salad veggies were in season. But similar on the rest of what lemurcat2 said about the overall composition of dinners.
2. Served with dinner in a separate bowl, but most of ate at least part of our salad before digging into the rest of the meal.
3. The US, one side German-descent Americans from the midwest for about three generations, and on the other Irish-descent from the mid-Atlantic for at least three generations. Not sure to what extent they were influenced by "old country" traditions, except that my German/midwestern grandmother almost always served salad for dinner (which was the mid-day meal for them), in a serving bowl on the table with all the other food, and you dished it up on your dinner plate with whatever else you were eating (at least one meat protein + at least one starch + at least one non-starchy vegetable).0 -
German heritage - We had salad served with most meals and always had to have bread and butter with the meal as well (Wonder Bread, of course). I don't do salads as much and will sub another non starchy vegetable with the meal on most nights.0
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lynn_glenmont wrote: »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.
^^This pretty much describes my experience except
1. While we had it frequently, we had it more frequently in warm weather when salad veggies were in season. But similar on the rest of what lemurcat2 said about the overall composition of dinners.
2. Served with dinner in a separate bowl, but most of ate at least part of our salad before digging into the rest of the meal.
3. The US, one side German-descent Americans from the midwest for about three generations, and on the other Irish-descent from the mid-Atlantic for at least three generations. Not sure to what extent they were influenced by "old country" traditions, except that my German/midwestern grandmother almost always served salad for dinner (which was the mid-day meal for them), in a serving bowl on the table with all the other food, and you dished it up on your dinner plate with whatever else you were eating (at least one meat protein + at least one starch + at least one non-starchy vegetable).
I was thinking about this after I posted, and we also had it more in the summer, and I know I'd usually eat most of the salad before the rest of the meal, but I'm not sure what the rest of my family did.0 -
relativehunter wrote: »German heritage - We had salad served with most meals and always had to have bread and butter with the meal as well (Wonder Bread, of course). I don't do salads as much and will sub another non starchy vegetable with the meal on most nights.
My ex-in laws were of German heritage and had Wonder Bread and butter with each meal. They lived in Iowa.
No doubt part of the Wonder Bread aspect was due to him working for them and getting discounts.0 -
kshama2001 wrote: »relativehunter wrote: »German heritage - We had salad served with most meals and always had to have bread and butter with the meal as well (Wonder Bread, of course). I don't do salads as much and will sub another non starchy vegetable with the meal on most nights.
My ex-in laws were of German heritage and had Wonder Bread and butter with each meal. They lived in Iowa.
No doubt part of the Wonder Bread aspect was due to him working for them and getting discounts.
We were a Gardner's Sof-Twist family. Can't say I have ever had Wonder Bread and I am in my 60's.0 -
I had Wonder at friends' houses occasionally, and even as a kid I thought the texture was really weird.0
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I'm 66 and I never had salad as a kid. Except tuna, egg, potato or macaroni salad...something with mayo.
We always had 2 vegetables and a potato with our meat at dinner.
I rarely fed my kids salad, it's just not something I ever ate.
Now I will eat salad but the only kind I really enjoy are chopped salads, I like the lettuces and veggies cut up small.
I'm a New Yorker, at least 4th generation though my DNA says 98% Irish0 -
Basically never ate salad. When we did it was the whole meal (throwing a bunch of stuff in there). I hated salad, and still do. There's just something about it. Even when I really like all the ingredients, I'm never particularly pleased eating the salad.
Also, most of the salad we would have growing up when we did have it was made with romaine or iceberg lettuce, which I really disliked. Ever since I've learned that they both have minimal to no nutritional value I've avoided them entirely (and been upset about how it was forced upon me in the guise of being healthy).
My family is Swedish, Scottish, Norwegian, and Russian. But no one is particularly tied to those roots.
It reminds me of the west wing episode where Toby is eating a salad and everyone is asking him questions about what kind it is and he says something to the effect of "no matter how much bbq sauce I smother this with it still tastes like the ground."
Whenever we went to my grandmother's house for dinner we would have a salad at the beginning with beets and I did like that salad a lot, and didn't really know what beets were for a very long time. She's part Russian.0 -
I grew up eating salads with meals. Now i make a salad, as a meal. I call it a naked burrito. Onions , peppers, corn, chicken. Black beans an 2 eggs with spinach an romaine lettuce. No dressing the flavor. Makeup for the taste. An the eggs yumminess0
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Almost never. I grew up on mac and cheese, frozen pizza, hot pockets, and ramen noodles. For breakfast, a pop-tart with a flinstone vitamin on the side.
Luckily, I went polar opposite and am a huge veggie lover as an adult.
Oddly enough my mother came from a traditional Italian family with home-cooking. I ate well when we visited my Grandma.1 -
I am in the US. Growing up, I don't remember eating a lot of salads. But definitely as I got older, my mom started preparing salads with dinner. They were served with dinner and eaten like a side dish. I
I try to serve a salad with every meal. My husband doesn't like roasted veggies, only raw. My 14 year old daughter regularly orders salads in restaurants, which makes me so happy. I serve the salad with the main course. My husband eats his before his entree, but I always eat mine last.
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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?)
Salad quite often for us. With dinner. Same plate, I believe. When I eat salad with my Italian family and they have a separate bowl and eat it after... so werid to me lol. However, my mom's salads were disgusting to me as a kid... big shunks of mushrooms, onions, other raw and offensive things in the eyes of a child.
Basically third gen Canadian, my grandparents came over when they were young from England/Ireland/Scottland.0
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