5th Birthday Guest Post: Hail, Caesar!
A guest post by twitterer and dad, Chris Bolton. Chris works in the Pontcanna area and enjoys the area's easy access to lots of interesting lunchtime eateries. However, getting a bite to eat isn't always that easy,as Chris explains, "My tastes are driven by having 3 teenage sons who consume food like a plauge of locusts. To get a meal I have to choose things they don't like. This means lots of things that involve olives, vegetables or raw suff. Not too bad if you add in one of thier main dislikes, smoked salmon."
This week I have been mostly eating ..... Caesar Salad
I'm not much of a foodie, so here's a link to the definition and description of how Caesar Cardini invented it in 1924. "A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper".
My need for Caesar Salad usual happens in response to an inner "healthy eating" alarm. Some people do smoothies and juice drinks, I do Caesar Salad. Lettuce leaves and dog biscuits (croutons), it must be healthy.
So this is how my mostly eating week turned out.
Tuesday. Bella Italia, St Mary Street.
I like my lettuce to be good and crunchy. Mine was all chopped up, like they didn't think I could cope with big leaves. The croutons were the same as the bread used for the bread and olives, also chopped up. The chicken was chicken beast from something else on the menu, sliced up this time. The Cesar dressing was ok, but just a bit too much of it. One final thing, the Parmesan was too thick, like it had been chopped, not shaved. Overall it was ok, I ate it, but it felt a bit mass produced.
Wednesday. Blue Anchor Inn, West Aberthaw.
Caesar salad isn't always on the menu here. You have to check out the specials. I know it's outside Cardiff, it might not be available, but it’s worth the effort. This was Caesar salad with anchovies, perfect. Now, you've got to be careful with anchovies. Too many horrible experiences with the salty little blighters on pizza has made me nervous. No need to worry here though. They were very mild anchovies, nicely oily, not too fishy and just the right amount hiding amongst the proper large romaine lettuce leaves. The leaves were suitably large and crunchy and the dressing had a nice lemon tang. Best if all was the Parmesan savings. Nice big pieces that had just been shaved off a block. This was great.
Friday. Cafe Brava, Pontcanna.
This looked fantastic. A large bowl (bowl size is important to me) packed with crispy lettuce leaves, nice big shavings of parmesan, a few croutons visible and then the chicken on top.
The chicken was grilled to perfection, brown stripes from the grill with a peppery covering. Best of all it was still warm. There’s something about eating warm chicken and crunchy lettuce in the same mouthful that takes some beating. The croutons were random sizes and looked and tasted a bit like fried bread (much better than the dog biscuit ones that come out of a packet). Proper shaved parmesan again and just the right amount of dressing to leave a bit in the bowl to mop up with the side order of chips (I never said I was sophisticated).
Next week I’ll be mostly eating French onion soup.
This week I have been mostly eating ..... Caesar Salad
I'm not much of a foodie, so here's a link to the definition and description of how Caesar Cardini invented it in 1924. "A Caesar salad is a salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper".
My need for Caesar Salad usual happens in response to an inner "healthy eating" alarm. Some people do smoothies and juice drinks, I do Caesar Salad. Lettuce leaves and dog biscuits (croutons), it must be healthy.
So this is how my mostly eating week turned out.
Tuesday. Bella Italia, St Mary Street.
I like my lettuce to be good and crunchy. Mine was all chopped up, like they didn't think I could cope with big leaves. The croutons were the same as the bread used for the bread and olives, also chopped up. The chicken was chicken beast from something else on the menu, sliced up this time. The Cesar dressing was ok, but just a bit too much of it. One final thing, the Parmesan was too thick, like it had been chopped, not shaved. Overall it was ok, I ate it, but it felt a bit mass produced.
Wednesday. Blue Anchor Inn, West Aberthaw.
Caesar salad isn't always on the menu here. You have to check out the specials. I know it's outside Cardiff, it might not be available, but it’s worth the effort. This was Caesar salad with anchovies, perfect. Now, you've got to be careful with anchovies. Too many horrible experiences with the salty little blighters on pizza has made me nervous. No need to worry here though. They were very mild anchovies, nicely oily, not too fishy and just the right amount hiding amongst the proper large romaine lettuce leaves. The leaves were suitably large and crunchy and the dressing had a nice lemon tang. Best if all was the Parmesan savings. Nice big pieces that had just been shaved off a block. This was great.
Friday. Cafe Brava, Pontcanna.
This looked fantastic. A large bowl (bowl size is important to me) packed with crispy lettuce leaves, nice big shavings of parmesan, a few croutons visible and then the chicken on top.
The chicken was grilled to perfection, brown stripes from the grill with a peppery covering. Best of all it was still warm. There’s something about eating warm chicken and crunchy lettuce in the same mouthful that takes some beating. The croutons were random sizes and looked and tasted a bit like fried bread (much better than the dog biscuit ones that come out of a packet). Proper shaved parmesan again and just the right amount of dressing to leave a bit in the bowl to mop up with the side order of chips (I never said I was sophisticated).
Next week I’ll be mostly eating French onion soup.
Comments