Salad and British people….

[CurlewKate]

Do British people generally only eat salad in a heatwave? Asking because I went shopping yesterday and found empty shelves. I feel I should get special access to lettuce because I eat it and serve it all year round. All you fair weather Romaine lovers-reveal yourselves!

I never eat lettucy type salad. I can't see the point of lettuce at all. I quite like the Morrisons salad counter though.

I loved the Morrisons salad counter too until I saw a woman pick a boiled egg out of the egg mayonnaise bowl, suck all the mayo off and then put the egg back in. Never had anything else from there.🤢

There is a definite salad season as no one wants to cook in hot weather and no one wants cold food in the winter.

Yeah, steak and salad, chicken and salad. Heat and stodgy food doesn’t go well and also I cannot stand cooking for long periods in the heat when the steam is coming off the pans as well

Fucking hell, that is dog rough 🤣. What a tramp!

We get a veg box and eat it when it comes. No heatwave here, but I had salad for lunch yesterday.

We eat seasonally-ish
So after a bracing windy wintery wal no we don’t eat salad.
But when temperatures rise we eat Mediterranean a lot

I think lots of cultures eat cold food more frequently when it's hot don't they?! And hot food when it's cold?

I don't think that's only the Brits.

We grow our own lettuce, also cucumbers and tomatoes, I don't like having the oven on when it hot as it adds to the heat

It's not exactly about the salad but that British people cannot allow there to be a sunny weekend that doesn't include a barbecue. Obviously if we just ate flame-grilled meat in bread rolls (I assume the bakery shelves were empty of anything smaller than a full sized loaf @CurlewKate ?) until we are near to bursting point, that would be unhealthy, but a nearby bowl of chopped romaine with other sundry raw things will vaccinate us against any negative health effects from the meat feast.

Salad is a strange beast I always think.

If it is lettuce, cucumber, a few other raw veg or even a bit of fruit like pomegranate seeds or a few chopped seeds or nuts then it’s pretty healthy.

But most salad bars etc have one or two salads like that tops, then bowls of cold potato, rice, pasta, chicken or bacon etc drenched in fatty vinaigrette, mayo or pesto or some kind of jar of something and by that point it’s just pretending to be salad. Might as well have a nice hot bowl of creamy pasta and quit the pretence. It’s not healthier just because it’s cold … and less satisfying as a result.

What heatwave? Ours finished about 3 weeks ago. I’m still eating salad. I always eat salad, even in winter.

I do quite enjoy a grain based salad.

My DH, who is not British, 'has' to eat salad every day. If he can't be bothered making it he still eats an avocado (he eats one every day anyway, even if he has made other salad).

A certain subset, yes.

We have salads all year round.

We eat salad year round, but certainly probably more in summer. I bought 2 bags yesterday because today is sports day and we have to bring a picnic to feed ourselves and our dc before kicking off the dreaded 3 hours of sports day. And that picnic, in fact, largely consists of salad.

I’m guessing the complete lack of salad is probably more related to something like Bob pushed the trolley with the salad in it too deep in the chiller section when it was delivered and it’s all spoiled and they were waiting on the next delivery.

It's the same with strawberries and cream - there's often none left in the first couple of days of Wimbledon.

I’m more likely to eat a salad-based meal if it’s hot.

But, I think most salad-eaters have it year round.

All year round here, but I prefer a lettuce than those bags of leaves.

We probably get close to an avocado each every day - except my youngest who is more hesitant about it and has it more as a garnish. But the rest of us would have it on toast at breakfast with poached eggs, or in a sandwich at lunch etc.

I don’t really think of it as “ salad.” To me it’s almost a fat to do the job of a wodge of cheese!

Lettuce is horrendous no matter what time of year you buy it 🤢

But I think it’s normal to eat lighter foods in summer and heartier ones in winter no matter what your culture.

There's a memo that goes around and we do it just to piss you off.

DH eats salad every day, weather irrelevant. He is about as British as they come.

I buy salad all year long because my DD is terrible at eating veg but loves salad so I put it with every meal she eats!

Gross! 🤢Hope you reported it.

Honestly this is why I avoid things like salad counters, I don’t think self serve options are suitable or safe for public spaces!

Any buffets etc that are completely self serve and open to customers to easily tamper with I typically avoid.

The exception being hotel buffets that have enough staff standing round watching/serving - and even then I try to get there early so I’m of the first there lol

Grow your own.