Friday, June 19, 2009

TIP: THE ICEBERG

Crispy crunchy iceberg.

After you've had all the GREENness and oakleafs and reds and mescluns with their tiny personalities and their wee cutenesses and popularity, after bales of romaine and bushels of arugula and radicchio, acres of endive and cress and frisee, there comes a time in the tide of things in which only iceberg will do.

It's a good old sweatshirt of a vegetable, a trusty friend and colleague, a lean-on-me food that can provide the L for BLT, shred into a perfect nest for keeping teensy tea sandwiches fresh and moist, top a taco or a sub or a burger with less than elan, but more than ennui.

It shreds or chops or leaves or cups with ease, making the transition from filler to cushion to neat package. Wedges of it with a cloak of dressing whose recipe is guarded like State Secrets take their place on tables with the most exquisite cuts of meat, in steakhouses of brilliant pedigree and long tenure, where white-shirted waiters in aprons-to-their-shoes have grown old in such lofty service.

It floats forth on pristine crystal plates in some of the most privileged homes, some of the most treasured restaurants, and nestles between layers of ersatz beef and secret sauce with perfect ease and equal aplomb.

And a pile of finely-shredded, lightly-salted iceberg is my favorite accompaniment beside a juicy grilled cheeseburger with all the fixin's. I eat it with my fingers, and don't even PRETEND it's fries.

It has its own credentials.

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for stopping by my blog today. Iceburg lettuce reigns supreme! :)

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  2. I just read your comment on Cindy's (My Romantic Home) blog about not knowing how to post photos. You absolutely belong here! It's just a matter of hit and miss trying until it goes right.

    The easiest way to post a picture is to put the picture on your desktop where it's easy to find. Go to "posting" like you normally would and click on the little picture up along the top where you can choose fonts and whatever.

    That will bring up another window. Choose if you want your photos in the middle, left or right of your post (middle is easier) and if you want it small, medium or large (medium and large are easier to see).

    Then click "Browse" and it should bring up a window asking where your photo is. Tell it desktop, choose the photo, tell it to upload and there it will be!

    There are some great step by step tutorials on blogger and we've all been beginners at some point. Come along! I'd love to see your doll house under the cake dome!!

    Robin@Miscellaneous Thoughts

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  3. I agree wholeheartedly!! I love iceburg cut in a wedge and drizzled with my favorite dressing. It must be ice-cold straight from the ice box. Of course, it is just as yummy sans dressing - such a distinct flavor!

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  4. Well, Welcome, Gloria and Robin!!! It's lovely to have you visit. And Robin---you'll see by Saturday's post that I DID manage to post a couple of pics---silly ones, but an accomplishment nevertheless.

    I think we're having wedges-with-bleu tomorrow night---Chris is doing us a lovely tenderloin butt (now resting in his special marinade in the fridge), and all the children who live here are coming to dinner. He's cooking the meat, but I asked him to plan the rest of dinner, which I'll cook.

    And we'll have the favorite casserole of our son who's two-years-a-Dad himself---old fashioned asparagus casserole, the standby of many a Sunday Dinner and Church Supper.

    Thank you all for dropping in.

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  5. And welcome to you, Cris---I hope you'll drop in again.

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