I’m all for a wacky food trend.
I love a good cronut, quite enjoy my dinner deconstructed and I have been known to literally queue for two hours to get my hands on the choc-chip-crammed cookies that are all over Instagram.
But I draw the line at ‘hand salad‘.
Let’s just say it’s stirred up a lot of emotions and exactly zero of them are good ones.
It’s called a “hand salad” but let’s not focus on that https://t.co/fRTxgR79cY pic.twitter.com/XWY0mbAqF4
— Bon Appétit (@bonappetit) March 27, 2017
Food website Bon Appetit recently shared their recipe for ‘Hand Salad with Yogurt-Lemon Dressing’, designed to be an entree for a dinner party.
Please don’t serve this to anyone you actually like at your next dinner party.
There are so many things wrong with this.
Firstly, hand salad is not a ‘thing’. It’s a piece of lettuce that you dunk into dressing served in a bowl, rather than have your dressing already pre-poured onto the salad. It’s making me do all the hard work.
It’s called a #handsalad, but let’s not focus on that: bonap.it/4ysZxha | @bonappetitmag
A post shared by @regalist on
We also don’t need the name of a food to tell us how to eat it. I don’t see fork-pasta or hand-sandwich or wipe-your-mouth-after pork crackling on the menu at any other restaurants, do you?
At best, it’s deconstructed salad which – spoiler alert – SALAD IS ALREADY.
Listen: It’s no avocado toast, that’s for sure. Post continues after audio.
Second of all, lettuce and dip is nowhere near as enticing as chip and dip. Or even carrot sticks and dip. Literally, give me anything and dip (even just the dip by itself) and I will be more grateful than this hand salad business.
Fortunately, it seems I’m not alone in my anger.
Social media erupted with responses to the recipe.
I’m so old I remember when “hand salad” used to be called “crudités.” https://t.co/peMxKiVvdQ
— Corinne Marasco (@CorinneAM) March 27, 2017
@bonappetit We call that leaves & sauce where I’m from.
— Rich (@HeightMen) March 27, 2017
I would leave a restaurant if I saw hand salad on the menu https://t.co/mKW1mbeCja
— Farhad Manjoo (@fmanjoo) March 27, 2017
I know salad isn’t typically the most exciting dish. Add some fetta, a fancy dressing, even some watermelon or pomegranate seeds. But please, keep your hands to yourself.