What is Collateral Lettuce?

Pimp My Edibility

You may have discovered CollateralLettuce.com via buildingmybento.wordpress.com, my travel, architecture, language, and food blog.  Maybe you are obsessed with a Hollywood movie made in 2004, and the search engines were having an off day (an off day for themselves, not me!).  It could also be that you are, for lack of a better phrase, obsessed with food.    No matter how you came here, thanks for visiting.  My new blog focuses entirely on food and drink, while BuildingMyBento will still handle the rest of the pack.  Meanwhile, to better understand the inspiration for Collateral Lettuce, please continue to read below.

There are at least three schools of thought as to what constitutes a garnish.  You can have something inedible, such as those well-manicured blades of grass in take-out sushi platters, or toothpicks to prop up a carrot in the shape of a perennial, you run the risk of hearing that the decoration tastes better than the food (so get yourself insurance too).  Then, you might have something edible, such as shredded daikon for sashimi, rosemary sprigs alongside pasta or a liter of cooking oil for a Chinese dish (what, you mean that’s not a garnish?).  That’s all good and well, but how many daikon are thoughtlessly julienned each year when they could be used as reinforcements for baseball bats?

The third and most important entrant is lettuce.  You can make a strong, valid case that this verdant vegetable falls under the edible garnish group.  At the same time, when you see it “tucking in” that hamburger, or under french fries, beneath a mayonnaise mountain,  soaking up scallop juice or mussel milk, or even accompanying a bowl of salad (I last noticed this in Mexico), it takes a sudden turn for the inedible category too.  Do you dare eat it?  Do street foods in Johannesburg  and Jakarta excite you, and restaurant grade pending signs represent welcome mats , but one soggy leaf of Romaine makes you simultaneously perplexed, intrigued and inevitably coming back for more?  That’s the power of collateral lettuce.

For questions, comments, issues, and/or business opportunities, please send me, Jonathan a note at buildingmybento(@)gmail(.)com .

Oh, and yes, I’ve taken every photo and tried everything I write about.  Pitiable job?  It has its moments.