On Fri, 2 Nov 2018 01:19:15 -0500, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Thu, 01 Nov 2018 10:26:57 -0500, Gary wrote:
>
>> That said, I've rarely used romaine. I only use lettuce for
>> salads and sandwiches and both times, I like lettuce for the
>> crunch-factor. Iceberg does the trick well. Romaine is only
>> chosen here if no good iceberg available. Even then, I only use
>> the bottom part that's crunchy. The soft leaves are like eating
>> grass to me and not something I care for. It doesn't help a salad
>> or sandwiches for me.
>
>I only buy romaine hearts. Costco has the heart-iest (less green,
>more crunch) romaine hearts, but the grocery store's 3-pack is
>working better for me thqn the 6-packs at Costco (last two bags
>prematurely rottened).
>
>I ordered a romaine salad at a pizza place a few months ago and I'd
>been eating the hearts for so long I forgot that romaine in its
>default form kinda sucks. This salad was all green and no crunch -
>not a crisp stem in sight. Now I know where all the non-hearts go.
>
>You can see bitterness in romaine lettuce stems if you cut them and
>white stuff oozes out. That same white stuff turns pinkish on the
>cut stem of iceberg, so choosing iceberg with the least pink cut end
>is a good indicator of freshness and least likely to be better.
>
>-sw

It's funny. The salad gurus told us that iceberg was of no value
nutritionally, was kinda low class and anybody who knew anything
didn't eat iceberg. The same gurus told us all about various
vinegars, esp. balsamic and the very good oils we needed (very good
olive oil only please). Just recently, on different occasions,
different shows I've heard a cook or chef remark that salads just
don't taste as good as they used to. They were wondering what the
heck was wrong with red wine vinegar and why didn't anybody like
iceberg lettuce with all that nice cool, juicy crunch?
I had just recently decided to go back to iceberg and red wine
vinegar. I was telling my daughter about it and she said that she had
recently switched as well.
The old basics still work. ;-)
I'm running for cover now because of my unpopular view.
Janet US