Finding my head again or losing it completely

[muckefuck]

While we're on the subject of German food, here's something fresh and light that should get that spleeny taste out of your mouth:

I can't tell if I'm closer than ever to rediscovering one of my favourite dishes from my student days in Germany or if I'm only mired deeper into confusion. One of the regular side-dishes as the Mensa (university cafeteria) I regularly ate at in Freiburg was a salad consisting of entire heads of lettuce. They were small--bite size, in fact--and consisted of smooth-edged, spoon-shaped leaves. I remember this being called Kopfsalat ("head salad") and assumed it came from the fact that the heads were eaten whole rather than being plucked apart.

But an article I was reading on Badener cuisine mentioned Nüssli (Standard German Feldsalat) as a popular local green. A trip to Wikipedia informs me that this is a dialect name for what in the States I've always heard called mâche. But I was startled to see in the pictures of it the closest similarities to this aforementioned "Kopfsalat" I've ever seen. It's been so long, I can't remember the taste well enough to confirm that it had the "nutty" flavour supposedly associated with mâche (the Badisch name actually means "little nut"), but that would explain why I ate it so readily. If I've had mâche in this country, it's only been as leaves in a mix, never as whole heads, which is why I would never have made a connexion earlier.

But, so far, my research hasn't turned up any instances of "Kopfsalat" being used to describe Valerianella locusta, only Lactuca sativa var. capitata which is--of all things--a close relative of iceberg. Now you know that the tasty green I've been pining for all these years couldn't possibly have anything to do with nasty old iceberg, so I'm vexed. Where to turn now? To a friendly greengrocer who will sell me whole heads of mâche for a pretty penny for a tableside taste test, I guess.

Comments

Re: How do I hate iceberg? Let me count the ways!

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

it does have one valid use: if you're making a hot thai salad, or Chinese shredded squab or something like that, you can use it as a sort of lettuce wrap, where its neutrality, thinness and crunch are assets.

But shredding it and half-freezing it as the basis for a far-from Greek salad, ias done by every Cypriot diner in New Jersey, can only lead to misery.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

If you're making a Thai salad and non-iceberg isn't "neutral" enough, you're not using nearly enough hot pepper. Cabbage has crunch, too.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

and choi sum is a better choice in all regards except form factor; a good scallop-shell of iceberg is ideal for some wrapping applications.

But I'm really not here to defend it.