Not about vegetables per se...

I've decided something about vegetables, or more specifically: salads. To be precise, I have decided something about salad dressings.

I don't like salad dressings.

This has been a realization many years in the making, but certainly not a full lifetime. As my mother loves to retell again and again, my favorite salads at age 9 were those composed of ham squares and croutons. When I eventually started eating green vegetables I found them bitter and unsavory, and salad dressing was necessary. Ranch was my first favorite for it was accessible to my young palate. Then raspberry vinaigrette for it tasted like candy. Then balsamic vinaigrette, for raspberry vinaigrette was far too sweet.

Then I went to Japan and discovered that their salad dressings were FAR better than anything I'd had in the US. My favorite became a soy based dressing with citrus juices, but I was unable to find an adequate replica for it in the US. I have since been subsisting on oil and vinegar, and then just vinegar...

But now I am done with dressing. I have always eschewed condiments to a greater degree than the next person, and even recently been using my dressings merely as a dip for the occasional leaf of lettuce; I barely make a dent in the cup. Now I give it up entirely, for I much prefer pleasant tasting salads comprised of my favorite vegetables plain than a pile of bitter and unpleasant pieces whose flavor must be masked. It is such a joy to me to remember just how sweet sweet peppers taste. They are so delicious; like candy! Who would want to ruin that with some noxious Creamy Italian?

So that's it. I'm done. No more dressing. Mom, Dad, Monique, and everyone else who might be serving me dinner someday: I'll be grabbing my serving before you toss the salad. Fair warning!

P.s. In a surprising note, I did find a Japanese-generic brand version of the heavenly soy-citrus dressing in the World Market of Lafayette, Louisiana, which oddly enough is primarily a furniture store. Goodness knows if I'm ever going to use it...