Comments on: Caesar (Cesar) Salad

By: chris

chris — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 08:03:27 +0000

i got to say this, mr. mm… you got me hooked. you’e blog is both entertaining and informative. wish i could pass the blame on you for making me go late to an appointment… it’s because i started reading your blog from entry #1.

good job, sir!

By: nina

nina — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 10:49:02 +0000

I love caesar salad and I just gave up looking for a good caesar salad here in Doha. I can’t even find a romaine lettuce here. One time, I ordered caesar’s salad at a restaurant and only the top part of the salad is romaine lettuce!

Finally, i decided I want to try making my own dressing. How can I not think of that sooner? :) I’ll try your recipe. I’m sure it’s good…

By: neus hen

neus hen — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:50:36 +0000

So what if Marketman commented about the restaurant and the chef not living up to his standards?! They are his standards anyway. Oh and Meaghan about this “great priveldge (you mean privilege?) to eat out in restaurants” anyone in the food service industry should know that the privilege is to be able to serve satisfied guests.

Thank you for sharing the recipe, I used the dressing for my greens during dinner time. My 12 year old sister substituted your croutons though for a pack of Oishi bread and the end result was nonetheless satisfying!

By: Pinot Noir Lover

Pinot Noir Lover — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 04:30:03 +0000

Very well said, Marketman. If we’re in a culinary school and you’re my professor, I’ll probably be sitting at the back of the class. Your comments are very straightforward. However, I will never miss any of your lectures coz you are indeed a very good mentor.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:29:31 +0000

Meaghan, perhaps you have read too much into this, or out of context. The blog is based in Manila. Caesar salad is NOT native to the Philippines. It is MORE common to North America, and the “Chef” of this celebrated local restaurant was known for his FOREIGN style dishes. And his being foreign was something the restaurant used in their PR material on purpose, setting themselves out as “superior” and “differentiated” from purely locally staffed restaurants. So to be served a version of this western salad that was glaringly pathetic is the main issue, not that the chef who WAS foreign and I suppose we mistakenly assumed would know how to make a decent Caesar salad given his much touted credentials. If you were a waitress (which by the way, is a SERVER these days, waitress being akin to calling a flight attendant a STEWARDESS) at our table and you couldn’t properly describe the salad, even after a visit to the kitchen to inquire as to its ingredients, you definitely wouldn’t get a tip. :( The Philippines was a colony of Spain, England, Japan and the United States for 400+ years, so a foreigner here, connotes something very different from references in the U.S., where I am assuming you reside, that was once our colonizer. You need to perhaps consider a broader frame of reference for your perceived biases before shooting off an email based on one post out of nearly 1,800 food posts on this blog.

By: Meaghan

Meaghan — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 17:27:52 +0000

Found your article when looking for recipes and was pretty put off by your comment “I asked for the chef (a foreigner, at that)”. You should know that it is a great priveldge to eat out in restaurants in the first place, and to be served by those in the kitchen who come from all parts of the world. Hope I never have to be your waitress.

By: Marketman

Marketman — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:30:16 +0000

Antonio, if you bothered to read the post, it DOES say the original probably DID NOT include anchovies, based on internet and cookbook research, and hence the recipe I describe (as the ones I LIKE, not necessarily the ORIGINAL) are the later versions, specifically, the recipe used at ZUNI cafe (not my own) and then a second one with only worcestershire and mustard. So before you get so high and mighty with your comments, figure out how to read and comprehend an entry first… duh. Further, his bottled commercial dressing DID include anchovies, so it is an ingredient even in his own later iterations of his “original” recipe. Finally, a quick google points to several sources that list the “invention” of this recipe in the 1920’s or even 1924 to be more specific, so your brilliant research that it was made in 1948, is news to me… perhaps you would like to spend your time correcting those erroneous sources first, before anything else on the salad front…

By: Antonio

Antonio — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 10:35:17 +0000

Technically, your recipe is a “bastardized” version of the original Cesar salad. Cesar Cardini, creator of the Cesar Salad in 1948, opposed the use of anchovies in his famous salad. Do the research, please! Anyone who thinks putting anchovies in a Cesar salad makes it authentic is kidding themselves. I, too, hate it when people bastardize a Cesar Salad. By putting anchovies in your recipe, you trump its originality! Anchovies are okay in the salad, but certainly not original.

By: ganns

ganns — Fri, 11 May 2007 06:22:10 +0000

I’m with you on that, Ingrid. I truly enjoy Burgoo’s seafood caesar salad. My wife and I actually go to Burgoo sometimes just to have it.

This may make Marketman line me up for the death penalty, but I’m a big mustard fan, and I find that increasing the amount of mustard ever so slightly has always improved the flavor of the anchovies, IMHO. Just my thoughts. *runs away from Marketman*

By: Ingrid

Ingrid — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:25:36 +0000

For me, Burgoo caesar salad is the best. Esp. their Seafood Caesar salad. It has calamari, grilled shrimps, etc. You should give it a try. Whenever i willgo and visit their store, every table has it. :)