Caesar salad　-Murakami radio-

Sometimes you think that today's lunch would be just a bowl of zarusoba.　You don't feel that hungry, but you want to have something in your stomach.　Living in a foreign country, however, this is not possible.　Apart from special years, there is no such thing as a soba noodle shop, nor is there an equivalent of zaru-soba.　On such occasions I often order Caesars salad.　In most American restaurants, Caesar's salad is usually listed as a light main dish, and eating just this much salad is about the same "intake" as eating a bowl of zarusoba.　Of course, the taste is quite different from soba.

Many people think that Caesar's Salad was taken from the name of the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar, but this is not the case, and it derives from an Italian-American, Caesar Cardini, who opened a restaurant in Tijuana in the 1920s.　The theory is that he improvised the recipe for Caesar's Salad by chance.　I don't know for sure, as it was more than a hundred years ago and I didn't see it with my own eyes, but it seems certain that the "Caesar's Salad" first appeared on the menu at this restaurant and became popular there.

As a Caesar's salad lover, it is unfortunate that I have rarely had a Caesar's salad in Japan and thought, "Yes, this is delicious".　I suspect that this is probably because the ingredients are not used in the correct quantities.　Preciseness is the key since this is a very simple dish.

First and foremost, this salad requires fresh romaine lettuce that is as crisp as a virgin.　Sometimes regular head lettuce is substituted, but this is out of the question.　Sunny lettuce is a terrible choice.　The only ingredients are croutons, egg yolks, and parmesan cheese, seasoned with fine olive oil, grated garlic, salt, pepper, squeezed lemon, Worcestershire sauce, and wine vinegar.　It's pretty simple, isn't it?

For those who want something a little heartier, many restaurant menus offer tuna or chicken as an additional ingredient.　In Japanese terms, this would be similar to the "tenzaru".

When you go to an authentic restaurant, the cook will come up to your table and actually mix all these ingredients together quickly in front of you.　This is quite a spectacle.　One restaurant near the main gate of Harvard University has a menu called "Deconstructed Caesar's Salad".　In short, they bring the ingredients to you in pieces and ask you to assemble them yourself. It's a cool and intelligent name, not just because of the location, but because it's quintessential.　I wouldn't go so far as to say that eating a crisp, bright Caesars salad with a cup of iced tea in the late afternoon is one of life's greatest pleasures, but it's quite comforting.

Murakami this week.

I came up with the traffic motto "三時でも四時でもやろう一時停止", which is rather silly.